Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 1: Table Operations
FORMAT A BLOCK OF TEXT AS A TABLE
Data is often organized as a table.
In Excel, you can designate a range of cells as a table.
If you do so, Excel can do smart things with it.
1. SELECT “FORMAT AS TABLE”
1. Select the entire table
by clicking in one corner
and dragging to another
corner.
If there are no
blank cells, you
can click any cell
in the table
instead.
2. Select the Home tab.
3. Click on Format as
Table in the Styles
group.
Descriptive Statistics Lab
2. CHOOSE A STYLE
After you click on Format as Table, you
select a style for your table.
Click on a style that looks like it suits
your purpose.
Don’t worry. You can change it later.
3. CONFIRM YOUR SELECTION
You will be asked to confirm that the selected
range is your table.
If this is not correct, change it by
entering the correct range in the
blackened input area.
Your selection should include the header
(label at the top of each column).
If there are headers, click the check box “My
table has headers”
YOUR TABLE IS NOW DEFINED AND FORMATTED
Hands On: Do this step yourself.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
4. REFINING THE DESIGN
1. Click
anywhere in
the table.
2, A new tab
appears
under “Table
Tools.” This
is Design.
Click on it.
3. Give your
table a
descriptive
name.
4, Go to the
Table Style
Options
group.
Your table has a header row and banded columns. This is correct for your data.
Sometimes, the first column is also a header.
We will look at the total row later.
Hands On: Do this step yourself.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
SORTING THE ROWS
You often want to sort the rows to see patterns in the table.
The small drop-down arrows in the column headers do this.
THE TABLE BEFORE SORTING
Unsorted location data.
Drop-down arrow. You
will click on the dropdown arrow to sort the
column.
CLICK ON THE LOCATION DROP-DOWN BOX TO SORT BY LOCATION ALPHABETICALLY
1. Click on the Drop-Down Arrow.
2. Select Sort A to Z to sort alphabetically.
THE RESULT
The table is sorted alphabetically by location.
Hands On: 1. Sort by age, oldest to youngest.
2. Sort by income, in ascending order.
3. Sort by location, alphabetically.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
COUNTING FREQUENCIES IN SORTED DATA
You wish to create a frequency distribution by location.
1. Highlight the
range of the first
city—Antwerp.
2. The box in the
upper left shows
that you have
highlighted 3 rows
and 1 column.
This means that the
count for
employees working
in Antwerp is 3.
You can count the
frequency of
employees in Berlin
the same way.
Then go on to
Chicago.
Now you can create
the summary table
(frequency
distribution.)
City
Employees
Antwerp
3
Berlin
Chicago
Lahore
Total
Hands On: Complete the frequency distribution.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
TURN THE DROP-DOWN ARROWS ON AND OFF
1. Click anywhere in the table.
2. Go to the Data tab.
3. Clicking on the large filter icon toggles all of
the drop-down arrows on and off.
Hands On: Try it.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
COMPUTING STATISTICS WITH A TOTAL ROW
1. Click on any cell in the table.
2. Under Table Tools, select Design.
Caution: If Table Tools and Design do
not appear, you have not first clicked on
a cell in the table.
3. Under Table Style Options, click on Total
Row
A total row appears.
For the last column, Excel automatically adds a
sum.
If you click on a cell in the total row, you can
decide what statistic you wish to appear there.
Hands On: Create 1) a sum for income, 2) a count for location, and 3) a median for years with
the firm.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
SORTING ON TWO COLUMNS
You wish to sort by first and last name.
You must sort by Last and First, but in what order
do you do it?
The answer: Sort by the main category LAST.
So sort by first name first because it is not the main
category.
Then sort by last name.
Note that people with the last name Jones are
sorted properly.
If you sorted by last, and then first, your data would
be sorted by first name.
Hands On: Try it.
COUNTING DATA FOR A CROSS-TAB
Sort by Gender, and then by Location.
Highlight the number of female employees in
Lahore. You see that this gives you three rows. So
three female employees work in Lahore.
You can now begin filling out the cross tab.
Antwerp
Female
Male
0
3
Berlin
Chicago
Lahore
3
Total
Hands On: Complete the frequency distribution.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 2: Filtering
PERSPECTIVE
Sorting sorts the rows and leaves all rows visible.
Filtering only shows some rows, for easier visualization.
Filtering does not delete the unseen rows.
THE DOWN ARROW OPTIONS
COMPONENTS
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
SELECTING ANTWERP ONLY
By default, all choices are selected.
1. Click on (Select All) to unselect everything.
2. Click on Antwerp only to select it.
THE RESULTS
Hands On: Try filtering to show only employees in Antwerp.
CLEARING FILTERS
You must clear filters one column at a time.
1. If a column has a funnel icon, it is filtered.
2. Click on the filter icon
3. Select Clear Filter From “nameofcolumn”
Hands On: 1) Clear the filter. 2) Do a new filter showing employees in Chicago AND Berlin.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
TEXT FILTER OPTIONS
Hands On: Filter for employees whose Last Name begins with “T”.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
NUMBER FILTER OPTIONS (FOR NUMERICAL COLUMNS)
TOP “10”
Hands On: Filter on salaries above the average. Clear the filter.
Filter on age over 50. Clear the filter.
Filter on the top three salaries. Clear the filter.
Filter on ages between 50 and 60. Clear the filter.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 3: Conditional Formatting
PERSPECTIVE
Sorting sorts rows, showing all rows.
Filtering shows only selected rows.
Conditional formatting only changes the format of cells, for easier visualization
BEGINNING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING
1. Select cells to
be conditionally
formatted.
Simply
click on
the filter
arrow to
select
them
2. On the Home
tab,
3. Click on
Conditional
Formatting
Then select a
type of
conditional
formatting.
We will only
look at data bars.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
DATA BARS
Select the data
Go to the Home tab,
Click on Conditional Formatting.
Select Data Bars.
Choose a color.
WHAT YOU GET
The width of the bars is proportional the value in
the cell.
Hands On: Add data bars to Age as shown.
Add data bars to Years with the Firm.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
“TOP 10” CONDITIONAL FORMATTING
Top/Bottom rules take you the Top
and Bottom “10” rules for
elements or percent.
They also take you to above and
below average.
EXAMPLE: TOP 2
Choose “Top 10” items.
In the Top 10 Items dialog box, choose the top 3
items.
Select a dell format.
Hands On: Format the oldest four employees. Remove the formatting.
Format everyone below the average age.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 4: PivotTables
PERSPECTIVE
Doing sorting and then counts is time-consuming and error-prone.
PivotTables automate many aspects of creating frequency distributions and cross tabs.
CREATING FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS WITH PIVOTTABLES
You want to create a frequency distribution for Location.
Earlier, we saw how to do it manually.
Now we will see an automated way to do this—PivotTables.
PivotTables automate the creation of both frequency distributions and crosstabs.
START THE PROCESS
1. Click anywhere in the table.
2. Go to the Insert tab.
3. Click on PivotTable.
4. Select PivotTable
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
NEXT STEP
A Create PivotTable dialog box appears.
The table should be selected automatically.
Select whether you want the PivotTable
placed on a new worksheet (selected) or on an
existing worksheet, such as the current
worksheet.
YOU CAN NOW BUILD THE PIVOT TABLE
You want the row
labels to be the
locations.
So drag
Location
to the Row
Labels
box at the
bottom.
You want the
second column to
be a count of
people in each
Location row.
So drag
Location
to the Σ
Values
box.
By
default,
the Count
for
Location
values.
The row labels are
Location values.
The count is for Location
values.
Hands On: Create this frequency distribution.
Using a PivotTable, create a frequency distribution for how many people are men and women.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Using a PivotTable, create a frequency distribution for how many people are men and women.
ISSUE
Do women make less than men?
Click
anywhere in
the table.
Under the
Insert tab,
click on
PivotTable
and select
PivotTable.
You want the
rows to be
gender
category, so
drag Gender
to the Row
Labels box.
For each
gender you
want the
average
salary. Drag
Income to the
Σ Values box.
The row labels are
Location values.
The sum is for Income
values.
However, the
selection is
Sum of
Income, not
average.
Hands-on: Create this frequency distribution.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
CHANGE SUM TO AVERAGE
But to compare salaries for men and women, we need averages, not sums because there are
different numbers of men and women.
Right click on the Sum of Income
arrow.
Select Value Field Settings.
In the Value Field Settings dialog box,
select Average (mean).
The second column changes to average
income.
Women make more than men, on average.
Hands On: Try it.
Then create a frequency distribution for average Income by Location.
Then create a frequency distribution for average Age by Gender.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
CROSS TABS WITH PIVOT TABLES
You want to see how the number of years the employee has been with the firm differs between
men and women. You want a table like this:
Years with Firm
Males
Females
1
2
…
Now there are both row and column labels.
START A CROSSTAB PIVOTTABLE.
Use the steps described above.
DEFINE THE PIVOTTABLE
Drag Years with
Firm to the Row
Labels box.
Drag Gender to the
Column Labels box.
Drag anything to the
Σ Values column.
You are only doing
counts, so it doesn’t
matter with one you
count.
Change the Value
Field Settings for the
Σ Value box to
Count.
This PivotTable is a cross
tab.
You get the
indicated Cross Tab.
Hands On: Do it.
Then create a cross tab to show how average Income varies by Gender and Years with the Firm.
Then create a cross tab to show the average age by Location and Years with the Firm.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 5: Analysis Tool Pack and Descriptive
Statistics
ANALYSIS TOOL PACK
The Excel Analysis Tool Pack is an add-in that comes with Excel. We will use it extensively in
this class. You may have to add it.
First, see if the Analysis Tool pack is
already installed.
1. Click on the Office Button.
2. Click on Excel Options at the bottom of
the drop-down menu.
3. On the Excel Options dialog box, select
Add-Ins.
4. See if the Analysis Toolpack has been
added in.
IF SO, YOU ARE FINISHED.
If not, go on.
5. Go to Manage, Select Excel Add-Ins, and
Click on Go.
Follow the subsequent instructions. You
may need your Excel program disk.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
STATISTICS FUNCTIONS
ON THE FORMULAS TAB
1. Go to the Formulas tab.
2. Select More Functions.
3. Select Statistical.
4. Select the function.
WHENVER YOU ENTER A FORMULA
1. When you type an equal
sign to begin entering a
formula, fx appears,
indicating that you may
select a function.
2. When you click on fx, the
Insert Function dialog box
appears.
3. You can search for a
function by giving a
description of what you
want to do and then hitting
Go.
Or
4. If you know the name of
the function, select the
Statistical category, select
the function.
5. Excel gives you a short
description of its syntax and
what the function does..
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
Part 6: Charts
Single statistics, frequency distributions, and cross tabs present information as numbers and
tables. Charts present information graphically.
DATA
Here is some data we wish to chart.
The categories are hardware, software, and service.
The data we wish to chart is revenues.
Category
Hardware
Software
Service
Revenues
500
1,700
900
BEGIN THE PROCESS
1. Select the chart—
including the headers.
Although usually
you can click a
cell anywhere
inside the table.
2. Click on the Insert tab.
3. Look at the Charts
option to see the kind of
chart you may create.
SELECT THE SIMPLEST COLUMN CHART TYPE
4. Select a column chart.
5. Select the simplest bar chart.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE RESULT
Excel creates the following bar chart.
You can take it as it is, or you can
make changes to fix it or improve it.
MODIFYING THE BASIC CHART
TERMINOLOGY
To modify the chart, you must be familiar with several pieces of terminology found in most
charts.
BASIC EDITING
You can right click on numbers to format them.
You can double-click on test to change it (titles, etc.)
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE DESIGN TAB
Whenever you click anywhere in a table, three additional tabs appear.
You typically use them left to right.
The Design tab helps you refine your initial design.
Type
Data
Chart
Layouts
Change Chart
Type
The most basic option—changes the entire chart type.
Try changing it to a line
chart.
Save as a
Template
Something you really may want to do at the end—so
that future charts can be build with this template.
Not on an exam or
homework.
Switch
Row/Column
Discussed later.
Select Data
Discussed later.
(Visual Choices)
Excel begins with a default design for the elements to be
included and how they are shown. Chart layouts allow
you to try different overall layouts (designs).
Play around with it.
The last choice gets you back to the default.
Chart
Styles
(Visual Choices)
This pretties up the basic layout you have chosen. Be
careful. You can easily overdo it. Also, some color
combinations print poorly in black and white.
Play around with it.
Location
Move Chart
You can move the chart to another sheet or to a new
sheet.
Not on an exam or
homework.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE LAYOUT TAB
The design tab lets you select the general overall design.
The layout tab lets you specify individual elements of the layout in more detail.
Stuff
on the
Left
2.
Labels
We will ignore.
Ignore.
Will not
be on
homework
or an
exam.
Chart
Title
Controls whether the chart title shows or not and if so, where it is
located.
Play with
this.
Axis
Titles
Controls whether the primary horizontal or vertical axis shows or not
and if so, where it is located.
Play with
this.
Legend
Controls whether the legend shows or not and if so, where it is located.
Play with
this.
Data
Labels
Controls whether data labels show or not and if so, where they are
located.
Play with
this.
Data
Table
The data table shows the data on which the chart is based.
Play with
this.
Controls whether the data table shows and if so, where it is located.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE LAYOUT TAB (CONTINUED)
The design tab lets you select the general overall design.
The layout tab lets you specify individual elements of the layout in more detail.
3. Axes
Axes
3. Allows you to choose whether to show a vertical (or
horizontal) axis.
4. Allows you to show your figures in thousands, millions, or
billions, so that your numbers do not get to large.
5. More Primary Vertical Axis Options is important.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE LAYOUT TAB (CONTINUED)
The design tab lets you select the general overall design.
The layout tab lets you specify individual elements of the layout in more detail.
3. Axes
Axes
2. Axis Options allows you to specific minimum and maximum
values to be shown on the axis. Useful if Excel picks odd choices.
2. Allows you to control the major units shown, so you do not
have too many or two few.
3. Allows you to display units (hundreds, etc.)
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE LAYOUT TAB (CONTINUED)
Axes
Alignment
Try this on the
horizontal
axis.
Under Alignment (1),
2. You can make the text horizontal or vertical.
3. You can make it show at an angle (often done on the
horizontal axis.
Guidelines
Turns horizontal and vertical gridlines off and on and adjusts
their spacing.
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Ignore. Not on
homework or
exams.
Descriptive Statistics Lab
THE LAYOUT TAB (CONTINUED)
4.
Background
Plot Area
For filling in the plot area.
More Plot
Area Options
The Result
Stuff
on the
right.
Nothing on the
exam or
homework.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
CHART TOOLS/FORMAT
The design tab lets you select the general overall design.
The layout tab lets you specify individual elements of the layout in more detail.
The format tab allows you to format individual items in detail.
Here the vertical grid text has been formatted.
You can also play with gridlines.
You can also play with the data series.
The design tab often overdoes things. You are not required to know it for homework or exams,
but it’s kind of cool.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
PIE CHARTS
Everybody seems to love pie charts.
They show how each category’s size relates to the total. (The whole pie?)
Unlike bar charts and line charts, pie charts can only show data from a single data series.
CHOOSING A DATA SERIES
We decide to select Year 2 for our data series.
Consequently, our category values are not contiguous with (next to) the data values.
Specifying the chart takes three steps.
1. Select the category data, including the header row. This will be the horizontal axis.
2. Hit control.
3. Select the data series value including then header row.
PIE CHART
After you have selected the table information, hit insert and then pie chart.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
REDOING THE PIE CHART
Delete the pie chart you created.
This time select a 3D chart.
UNDER DESIGN, SELECT A STYLE
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ADDING DATA LABELS
Under Format, chose Data Labels.
Select “Outside End”
PULL A SLICE OUT FOR EMPHASIS
Click on a slice you wish to
emphasize.
Pull it away from the center, slowly.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
DATA TABLES
Data tables add the data to the chart for even more information for the reader to go through.
Under Chart Tools / Layout, click on Data Table.
Here, both data labels and data tables are shown. This is overkill.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
NUMERICAL CATEGORIES
Excel generally makes smart decisions when it does charting.
However, when the horizontal axis categories are numbers, such as years, Excel becomes stupid.
1. Here is the
table to be
graphed.
Select it and
select chart type
bar chart.
2. This is what
you get.
It assumes that the
Year column
holds data.
This is not what
you want.
3. Under the
Design tab Data
group, choose
Select Data.
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Descriptive Statistics Lab
4. You get the
following dialog
box.
Year is incorrectly
in the legend
category.
Click on Year.
Click on Remove
to remove it.
5. Now you need
to add the year
values to the
Horizontal
(Category) Axis
Labels.
Click on Edit.
6. The Axis
Labels dialog box
appears.
Select the Year
values (NOT
including the
header row)
Click on OK.
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7. Your Legend
entries now
include Product A
and Product B.
The Horizontal
Axis now has
years.
Click on OK.
8. Finally, this is
the chart you
want.
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