# Simple excel bar graph question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 30, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476 "2013-12-30T13:14:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476/1 "2013-12-30T13:14:53Z")

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I have a list of exam grades ranging from 1.00 to 15.00. How can I make a bar graph showing that x students were graded 1.00 to 1.99, y students were graded 2 to 2.99 and so on?

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**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476/2 "2013-12-30T13:29:05Z")

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Several ways - the way I’d use is:

1. over to the right of the data (skip a few columns) - make a column starting in row 2 that has numbers 1:15. Row 1 can then later have title for that column of data.
2. Use the FLOOR function to turn each number into a round number. I would just use the column next to your column of data for ease.
3. Use COUNTIF function next to numbers in step one above to count the number of times each score occurs.

You could do it all in less than three steps, but if you don’t understand each one - breaking it down as above might be useful.

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476/3 "2013-12-30T13:46:44Z")

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The type of chart you’re describing is called a histogram. Here’s [Microsoft’s page on how to make a histogram in Excel.](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214269) The procedure varies slightly from version to version.

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simple-excel-bar-graph-question/677476/4 "2013-12-30T20:39:52Z")

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Simply put:

1. Install the Data Analysis ToolPak (free, nothing to download). You only have to do this once for each computer/install of Excel.
2. Use the range of values and a bin range to create a table of binned frequencies using the installed tool.
3. Create a bar graph with those values (in Excel, the one you want is called “Column” not “Bar”.  
3b) Histograms normally have no space between the bars, so decrease that distance.

The tricky part is creating the bin values. The Histogram tool does not create formulas, so you have to run it each time you change any data. You can have it overwrite the old output.