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How to create 3-variable graph in Excel 2011 (Mac)

Anonymous
2013-08-19T21:43:38+00:00

I need to plot a graph based on 3 variables. I have seen such graphs in Excel, so know it's possible.

The rundown: Can easily create a bar graph based on 2 variables in a given set of data, eg, age of participants and number of yrs playing sports. Assuming a sample of 25 people, the excel graph will have 25 bars, with age on the y-axis and playing time on the x-axis. Now I want to color code the bars to indicate the particular sport played by each member of the group: blue for tennis, green for baseball, etc. The only way I've found to do this is to manually change each bar color. This cheat may be reasonable for 25 data points, but not for hundreds.

This should be a fairly basic graphing function, given what Excel is supposed to do, ie, sort and present data. Yet, can find absolutely NO explanation of how to do it.

Any help?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-10T18:05:51+00:00

    @ Jon,

    You are going to have a problem as your vertical axis (normally your value) isn't standard - you have millions, Billions and then an average (which looks to be in units).

    For something like this you are best off doing a panel of 3 small graphs one for returns, one for Total and one for Average. By putting the 3 panel graphs in a sequence alongside each other - a reader should be able to see that Returns and Total show a spike in 2013, however it isn't reflected in the Average, and that Returns has significantly dropped in 14 compared to Total and Average.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-26T22:15:36+00:00

    @shsmd1, 

    Did you ever figure out how to do this?

    I'm in the same situation as you.

    I assume it has something to do with the way the data is sorted for the third variable to show up as a colour.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-08-21T05:48:18+00:00

    Wow ... rather harsh reply for a fellow volunteer user who bothered to try to help out with a vaguely worded question...  

    Nobody posting replies here has ANY idea why you chose to post your question here - and many, if not most, questions appear to be from people who have done little "standard searching", whatever that means.

    Lack of a relevant response for more than a day or so usually indicates that your question isn't being understood well enough for people to spend their time crafting a reply. When you read your question, you know what you're talking about. That's not available to anyone else.

    It's not clear (at least to me) from your post exactly what you're looking for - it sounds like some sort of clustered bar chart, presuming each member only plays one sport. If a member might play multiple sports, you may be looking for a clustered-stacked bar/column chart. Or maybe this link to alternatives may be useful.

    If those miss the mark, perhaps you can attach a picture/screen shot, or a more detailed description of what you're looking for.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-20T19:52:42+00:00

    No, absolutely no help. All you've done is send me to the same basic, pat explanations that turn up in a standard search. If that's all I needed, wouldn't bother placing the query on this board.

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