I am trying to create a compensation breakdown for each employee to show their financial health in the market. I found instructions on here from 7 years ago for a column chart that was similar to what I'm looking for.
However, is there a way to have a specific point highlighted on an area chart?
I've attached the chart that I currently have, as you can see the data point is not in the blue section like I'd like it to be. I've tried all sorts of formatting and cannot get it to work. Help, please!?
Sample chart with data point here
is there a way to have a specific point highlighted on an area chart?
No, area charts are sums, or counts (like histograms) or actual values. So, when you want to combine that with raw data, it won't work as you requested.
This only works if you have the same amount of data entries per data series. So, you need to have as many values for the blue area, as you have for the orange.
Thus, this is will not work. Also, from my understanding, you want to show where "Andy"'s salary is in relation to others (and the max/min/average).
I wonder if you could do this some other way? Establish what you want to convey with this chart, maybe we can find some alternatives.
But to merge two different sized series, not possible as far as I am aware (not in a way that it looks good).
I found instructions on here from 7 years ago for a column chart that was similar to what I'm looking for.
Would you mind sharing this? Maybe we can proceed further with that!
I have a report that is generated weekly with productivity numbers for employees in Excel. I am wanting to create a bell curve for several data points where the viewer can select the week time range and the bell curve will be updated. I have figured out formula wise how to make the mean, standard deviation, norm.dist, etc update when the date range is updated. The issue I have yet to solve or find an answer to though is how to graph this data without having to manually update the ranges of the graphs. Once this is accomplished I'd also like to be able to add vertical lines for the average and 1 standard deviation on either side of the average. Is this a possibility in Excel or any other program? I was hoping to be able to use Excel, but am happy to explore other options if that's the only way to do it. Thanks!
Is there a way to let a pivot table calculate the difference between 2 columns automatically when the values are shown as a % of the parent column total?
Now I need to to manually but the table is dynamic and number of competitors may vary. Function seems so easy but can't find it after googling etc...
See example picture below of what I want to achieve.
(Column F automated by the pivot table is the goal)
If trying to solve this with PivotTables, you've got a couple of options:
Use a 'Traditional' PivotTable that's based on a range. This will give you percentage differences, but you can't get percentage point differences like you're asking for without using external formulas.
Use a 'OLAP' PivotTable that's based on data you've added to the Excel Data Model. This will give you both percentage differences and percentage point differences, without having to resort to using external formulas.
In both cases, I recommend that you unpivot your data first, so that it is in what's known as a Flat File. Currently you're using a cross-tabulated data source (i.e. your source has columns called Year 1, Year 2), and the type of percentage comparisons across years you want to do doesn't work if your data is a crosstab. Basically, PivotTables aren't meant to consume cross-tabulated data.
Instead, you really want your data laid out so that you have a column called Amount and a column called Year, and then you can use the Show Values As options available from the right-click menu to show as percentage differences across years. To transform your data into a flat file, see my answers at convert cross table to list to make pivot table
That said, you can still use the GETPIVOTDATA function on your existing (unpivoted) data layout in a way that is somewhat more robust to changes in your PivotTable structure than just subtracting one reference from the other:
But again, I recommend transforming your data into a Flat File. Then you can additionally do the following:
Using a 'Traditional' PivotTable:
You can kinda solve your problem entirely within a self contained 'Traditional' PivotTable if you drag the Amount column to the Values area, put the Year column in the Columns area, put your Competitors in the Rows area, and choose one of the percentage Show Values As options you'll see when you right-click a cell in the Values area.
I say kinda, because without using external formulas (or without calculating the percentages back in your source data), you can only get it to show percent increases (see far right column), not percentage point increase like you want (see far left column). That said, I think percent increase is less confusing. But I guess it depends on what you want to show. If you want to show say change in market share from one year to the next, then percentage points make sense.
Of course, you could always use the GETPIVOTDATA function to do the additional math for you like we did earlier, like I've done on that left hand side.
Using an OLAP PivotTable based on the DataModel
Calculating percentage point increases likely requires using PivotTables built using the Data Model. See my answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/49973465/2507160 that explains a little about the Data Model (although it doesn't answer this specific question).
Here's the result:
Here's the measures I used to do this:
Total Year 1:
=CALCULATE(SUM(Table2[Value]),ALLSELECTED(Table2[Competitor]),Table2[Year] = "Year 1")
Total Year 2:
=CALCULATE(SUM(Table2[Value]),ALLSELECTED(Table2[Competitor]),Table2[Year] = "Year 2")
% Year 1:
=CALCULATE(SUM(Table2[Value]),Table2[Year] = "Year 1")/[Total Year 1]
% Year 2:
=CALCULATE(SUM(Table2[Value]),Table2[Year] = "Year 2")/[Total Year 2]
p.p. Diff:
= [% Year 2] -[% Year 1]
You can add Calculated Fields to Pivot Tables, of varying levels of complexity. Finding the difference between two fields is about as simple as it gets.
The example below is borrowed from contextures.com, where there are many more examples more further information.
To add a calculated field:
Select a cell in the pivot table, and on the Excel Ribbon, under the PivotTable Tools tab, click the Options tab (Analyze tab in
Excel 2013).
In the Calculations group, click Fields, Items, & Sets, and then click Calculated Field.
Type a name for the calculated field, for example, RepBonus.
In the Formula box, type =Total * 3%
Click Add to save the calculated field, and click Close.
The RepBonus field appears in the Values area of the pivot table, and in the field list in the PivotTable Field List.
(Source)
EDIT:
#jeffreyweir - I'm not gonna lie, I don't know off the top of my head how to make this work (and don't have time to experiment) but by the looks of these options, isn't a calculated field with a "straight subtraction" of existing fields (ie., 3$-2%=1%) very possible with Difference from? (as opposed to % Difference from which is also an option but for a different result).
In fact, automatic year-over-year difference reporting should be readily possible with the <previous> and <next> comparison operators...?
(Click to Embiggen)
Also, did you see the link where I got the example? Kind of a hoakey site but it has some more complex pivot table instructions.
I am currently working in Microsoft Excel 2011 on Mac OS X. I am given a large amount of data in different tables and need to make 2 variable bar graphs with the data.
I understand that the usual way of orienting bar graphs in excel involves placing the data like so:
a b
A 1 2
B 3 4
However, currently I am going to be working with a lot of data of the format:
A a 1
b 2
B a 3
b 4
Is there a quick way to either 1) Convert the data from my format to the correct format, or 2) Build a bar graph (without having to go in and do a ton of customization of the data) with the current format.
Currently the only solution I have working is to manipulate and move the data around and rename everything once the bar graph is made, but this is very cumbersome.
I would do this in three steps:
Fill in the missing values for your first column. This is a bit manual. If the data is huge you consider writing a quick vba subroutine. At any rate, make the data look something like:
Highlight this data and turn it into a pivot table.
Structure the pivot table to match your bar graph data format and add a pivot chart:
I applied a custom date format to a column in excel (the format yyyy-mm e.g. 2014-01)
But when I create a graph out of three columns of data (date-in above format |heading|value) the graph shows the date as 2014-01-31 2014-02-28.
How do I get the graph to display the date as I have formatted it 2014-01 only without changing the data type to text and pasting values?
I use Excel 2013 but as far as I know this aspect of charting has not changed much since long before Excel 2010. Select your horizontal axis (click on one of the date labels in the chart), select Format Axis... and you should be able to:
(a) format the values there independently (ie in your case reapply the same custom format as applied to the raw data) and/or
(b) tick Linked to source.
The latter approach may not work quite as well as the former. Linked to source may mean something a little different from just "take the formatting from the raw data" (well, for the axis labels the format has to be common to all, whereas in the raw data it may differ between data points) and with a quick look I have not found details (for Excel 2010) of exactly what that is supposed to do.
So the former approach may be more reliable. For this you may need a two-step process. First make your custom format available to the chart and then apply it. That way the results are the same, chart and raw data formatting, though the process is not fully automatic.
One thing to watch out for is the linearity of the chart for time values. For example, if the dates are strings and the data points Jan 2012, Feb 2012 and March 2013 there is some risk the resulting labels will be equally spaced whereas the gap between the second two points should normally be thirteen times that of the gap between the first two points. Where data is approximately at regular time intervals anyway this is not always immediately obvious.