B126_1

Data analysis: visualisations in Excel

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 22/07/24

About this free course

This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course B126 Business data analytics
and decision making - www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/b126.
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You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free
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demonstrate your learning.
First published 2023.
Unless otherwise stated, copyright © 2023 The Open University, all rights reserved.
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 22/07/24

Contents
Introduction 4
Learning outcomes 5
1 Excel spreadsheets 6
1.1 Using Excel 6
1.2 Opening an Excel file 7
1.3 Adding the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel 8
1.4 Decimal points and dates 9
1.5 Using shortcut keys in Excel 11
1.6 Use of Excel spreadsheets 13
2 Univariate data visualisation 15
2.1 Frequency tables 15
2.2 Types of frequency distribution 16
2.3 Histograms: a graphical visualisation of frequency tables 27
2.4 Frequency density 29
3 Bivariate data 32
3.1 Contingency tables 33
3.2 Scatter diagrams 34
Conclusion 38
Acknowledgements 39
Introduction 22/07/24

Introduction
The objective of this course is to explore the ways to visualise data sets, such as
univariate and bivariate data, in Excel and to familiarise yourself with the functions used in
Excel to explore the relationship between variables. Univariate data here refers to data
that consists of one variable, and bivariate data refers to data that consists of two
variables.

Figure 1 Making sense of visualising and exploring data

This course requires Microsoft Excel in some activities. Therefore, this course should be
completed on a desktop or laptop rather than a mobile device. If you do not have access
to Microsoft Excel, there are various other free options – such as Google Sheets, Apple
Numbers or LibreOffice.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course
B126 Business data analytics and decision making.
Learning outcomes 22/07/24

Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:

● explore the functionalities of Excel that are used for problem solving in a business
context
● demonstrate the numeracy skills required for gathering and organising data for
decision making related to a specific problem
● use graphical techniques (histograms and scatter diagrams) to provide a visual
summary of available data
● recognise data presentation and communication techniques used in a range of
traditional and electronic media
● describe the relationship between two variables (independent and dependent
variables).
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

1 Excel spreadsheets
Before making any decision for a business, it is usually a good idea to get a clear picture
of the data, which can provide you with an overview of the relevant information. It is good
practice, therefore, to organise and present data in such ways that make it useful for
decision making and problem solving. Microsoft Excel is used widely for data analysis in a
professional context. Researchers and analysts alike use this tool for various applications
in the real world, such as in business, medicine, academia, tax and auditing, marketing,
accounting and finance. Moreover, it is flexible enough to be used with many types of
data, irrespective of whether it is qualitative or quantitative data.
In this course, you will make extensive use of Excel spreadsheets. In this section you will
familiarise yourself with the basics of using Excel. This will enhance your analytical skills
as well as your employability skills.
This section briefly explains the various features and functions of Excel that are used by
researchers and data analysts to explore, organise and analyse data.

Excel for OU students

If you are currently studying with the OU as a fee-paying student, you have free
access to Microsoft Office 365. This includes the spreadsheet software Excel. For
this you need to go to the OU Computing Guide and scroll down to ‘Microsoft Office
365’. Click on the link. If you have not done so, then you should follow the
instructions to sign up to get access for your free version of the software. If you have
already installed Microsoft Excel on your laptop, then you may prefer to use your
own version. Although earlier versions of Excel are not significantly different, the
layout of some tabs and menus may vary slightly.

1.1 Using Excel

You can run Excel by double-clicking on the Excel icon on your desktop or laptop (or
select Excel 2013 or your version from your list of programs).
Excel will open with a clean, new worksheet called Book 1 that contains only one
worksheet (Sheet1). You can add more sheets by clicking on the plus sign at the bottom
of the worksheet or spreadsheet in case one sheet becomes too small or too cluttered.
This will help you to organise and manage your large sets of data, or a variety of data.
Add a new worksheet by clicking on the plus sign. The new sheet Sheet2 looks exactly
like Sheet1. Each individual cell is labelled according to the A1 reference style. This
means that columns are labelled with letters from A to XFD and rows with number 1
to 1048576. You will be using this style, as opposed to the R1C1 reference style, which
labels both rows and columns with numbers. However, it is sometimes useful to think of a
value or formula as being in a cell with a specific row number and column number.
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

Figure 2 An empty worksheet in Excel

The latest versions of Excel, including Excel 2013, are organised using a ribbon inter-
face, which consists of a collection of icons for each tab. The screenshot above in
Figure 2 shows the Home ribbon with several icons for general editing such as font size,
text alignment or cell styles. In this section, you will use the Insert, Formulas and Data
tabs in Excel. You may click on each tab and familiarise yourself with the large main icons.
You should not be worried if you are not very familiar with Excel, or do not know how to
use the various icons, tabs and functions yet. The aim of this course is to gradually build
up your familiarity with the software.

1.2 Opening an Excel file

Excel stores the data in files that contain one or multiple worksheets. When you open a
worksheet by double-clicking the Excel icon, it will usually display the data contained in
the last active sheet. For this course, you will be using a pre-populated worksheet for JC
Electrics, a company manufacturing heavy machinery, such as generators, transformers
and electric motors. Download the file at the link below. You can then save it to your
computer so you can return to it at different points in the course. The file will also be linked
at future points in the course.

● Download the file JC Electrics.

● Click on File, then Open and navigate to the folder in which you saved this file and
open the file by double-clicking it.

By opening the worksheet, you should see quarterly data of units sold by JC Electrics in
four columns. The screenshot below shows a spreadsheet with these columns labelled
as: ‘Quarter’, ‘Generators’, ‘Transformers’ and ‘Electric Motors’.
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

Figure 3 Data in Excel

1.3 Adding the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel

In this section, you are going to learn how to add the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel and
what its purpose is. If you are using another spreadsheet software, you may skip this
section. Alternatively, similar functionality is usually available within the software, and all
tasks within the Excel ToolPak can be carried out using other functions in Excel as well.
The Data Analysis ToolPak is a Microsoft Excel add-in function that provides you with a
set of statistical tools for analysing data efficiently and effectively. This add-in comes with
Excel during installation; however, if it has not already been loaded or activated on the
machine you are using, you need to load or activate it before you can use it.
To load the Data Analysis ToolPak:

● Open the Excel worksheet.

● Click on the File tab, then click on Options, and select Add-Ins.
● In the Manage box, select Excel Add-ins as shown in the screenshot below and
click Go.
● In the Add-Ins dialog box, select the Analysis Tool Pak check box, and then
click OK.
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

Figure 4 Activating the Data Analysis ToolPak

The Data Analysis icon should now be available on the Data ribbon in the Analysis
group.

1.4 Decimal points and dates

If you are using a version of Excel other than the English (UK) one, you may have noticed
the different date format and decimal point. In addition, one of the Excel’s habits of
automatically adjusting the format of cell contents can sometimes produce unwanted or
incorrect results. Therefore, it is useful to learn how things can be corrected and adjusted
in Excel.
In your Excel spreadsheet, click on File, select Options and then select the Advanced
tab; the results of this are shown in Figure 5.
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

Figure 5 Advanced options in Excel

If you untick the box ‘Use system separators’, you can enter alternative symbols to use
instead.
You can adjust the date format by selecting a cell that contains a date, then clicking on
Format in the Home ribbon under Cells and Format Cells … or by right-clicking on the
cells and selecting Format Cells … from the context menu.
Figure 6 below shows you the ‘Format’ dialog for an English version of Excel installed on a
computer. You can produce the desired date format; for example, DD/MM/YYYY by
selecting the option and then clicking OK.

Figure 6 Changing the date format

1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

1.5 Using shortcut keys in Excel

One of the most beneficial things in Excel is being able to control the user interface
without using the mouse. This will substantially speed up your Excel projects, especially
when working under pressure in a professional environment.
Some of the most useful shortcuts are listed in the tables below. Try some of these out
while reading the list.

Table 1 Navigating inside and between worksheets

Arrow keys Move around the spreadsheet.

Page Down/
Move screen down or up.
Page Up

Ctrl + Arrow Move to the edge of a region. This is useful for navigating large blocks of data,
keys particularly with the Ctrl + Shift + Arrow selection functionality.

Home Move to the beginning of a row.

Move to the beginning of a worksheet. This is most useful if you have multiple
worksheets and want to prepare a nice-looking workbook, by cycling through
Ctrl + Home
all worksheets pressing Ctrl + Page Down and Ctrl + Home for each sheet,
which quickly puts the cursor in the upper-left corner.

Ctrl + F Display the ‘Find’ dialog box.

Ctrl + H Display the ‘Find and Replace’ dialog box.

Ctrl + Tab Set focus on next workbook if multiple workbooks are open.

Table 2 Data selection

Shift + Space Select the entire row at the cursor position.

Ctrl + Space Select the entire column at the cursor position.

Select the entire worksheet or the data-containing area. Press Ctrl + A a

Ctrl + A
second time to select the entire worksheet.

Select the current and previous sheet in a workbook. This is useful if you
Ctrl + Shift +
have similar worksheets and want to edit cells in all of them at the same
Page Up
time.

Shift + Arrow key Extend the selection by one cell. This is one of the most useful shortcuts.

Ctrl + Shift + Extend the selection to the last cell with content in row or column. You can
Arrow key do this with the Page Up/Down keys.

Shift + F8 Add another range to the selected range of cells.

Esc Cancel selection.

1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

Table 3 Editing

Ctrl + C Copy active selection.

Cut active selection. Think carefully about whether you want to copy or cut a selection
Ctrl + X before pasting in each situation, because cell references in copied selections will
point to other cells and not the original references when pasted.

Ctrl + V Paste active selection.

Ctrl + Z Undo last action.

Ctrl + Y Redo last action.

F2 Edit current cell.

F4 Repeat last formatting action.

Alt +
Start a new line in the same cell when entering text.
Enter

Ctrl + D Copy above cell down.

Ctrl + ‘+’ Insert row/column.

Ctrl + ‘-’ Delete row/column.

Ctrl + 1 Show the ‘Format cells’ dialog.

Shift
Insert new worksheet.
+ F11

Table 4 Formulas and special functions

Ctrl + Shift + Enter an array formula. Must have a range selected first. (This is shown here
Enter only for reference and will be explained later.)

Shift + F3 Display the ‘Insert Function’ dialog.

When editing a cell reference (e.g. ‘H5’), pressing F4 makes this reference
F4 absolute (e.g., ‘$H$5’). Pressing F4 repeatedly makes only row or column
absolute.

Force re-calculation of worksheets. It can be used to calculate part of a formula,

F9 when selecting part of formula and pressing F9, this evaluates the selected
part.

Shift + F9 Calculate the active worksheet.

F12 Display the ‘Save As’ dialog.

Save the current workbook. Extremely useful for the occasional power outage
Ctrl + S
or computer crash.

Ctrl + F1 Minimise or show the ribbon.

1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

1.6 Use of Excel spreadsheets

Excel spreadsheets are used to manage, organise and present data in a systematic way.
They are particularly useful when there is a specific relationship between results in
different cells. They can be used in many ways in different fields; for example, in finance,
they are mostly used to present and analyse data such as accounting transactions
(e.g. sales, payments, cost, forecasting and budgeting). Spreadsheets are also used to
design templates of financial statements and survey results.
Some other uses are listed below:

● In schools and universities, spreadsheets are often used to manage student data in
areas such as their grade performance, attendance or personal biography.
● In hospitals, spreadsheets are used to manage patient data, like their personal
information, details of their illness or details of the medicines they use.
● Data is often exported from more complicated computer systems, such as
manufacturing, financial or marketing systems, to allow managers or analysts to
manipulate the data once it has been created, and to carry out forecasts, simulations
and ‘what-if’ exercises.

Excel also has many formatting options (borders, colour highlighting), to allow you to draw
attention to aspects of your figures. One of the more advanced features is conditional
formatting, in which Excel automatically assigns distinct colours to cells according to their
value (e.g. red for negative, green for positive and appropriate shades in between).

Activity 1 Test your Excel knowledge

Allow approximately 15 minutes to complete this activity

Choose an answer to each of the questions.You can check your answer to each
question as you go.
Which of the following functions counts all cells?
o a) SUMIF
o b) COUNTIF
o c) AVERAGE
o d) COUNT

What is the result of the following formula?

4 + 3*10
To enter the formula, click on an empty cell and type ‘=4+3*10’.
o a) 24
o b) 34
o c) 30

What is the shortcut key to copy a cell in an Excel spreadsheet?

o a) Ctrl + C
o b) Ctrl + F
o c) Shift + F3
1 Excel spreadsheets 22/07/24

What is the shortcut key to save the work in an Excel spreadsheet?

o a) Ctrl + V
o b) Ctrl + C
o c) Ctrl + S

What is the shortcut key in the keyboard to edit the formula or text?
o a) F9
o b) F2
o c) Ctrl + F

What is the shortcut key to cancel the selection in the sheet or cell?
o a) Ctrl + Alt + Delete
o b) Esc
o c) F12

What is the shortcut key to insert a new worksheet in an Excel file?

o a) Ctrl + Z
o b) Ctrl + V
o c) Alt + Enter
o d) Shift + F11

What is the shortcut key to display the insert function dialog?

o a) Shift + F3
o b) Ctrl + Z
o c) Shift + F2

In the next section, you will learn how to present and summarise a univariate dataset in a
table and graphical form.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

2 Univariate data visualisation

In practice, there are two main ways to visualise and summarise data in Excel. These are:

● tabular form
● graphical form.

While presenting and summarising data in Excel, it is important to know the features of
data. If your data is univariate – that is, the data consists of many observations for only
one variable – then you can either use a frequency table or a histogram to summarise the
data and get an idea of its features. However, if your data is bivariate – that is, the data
consists of two variables (an independent variable and a dependent variable) – and you
need to know the relationship between these two variables, then you can use either a
contingency table or scatter diagram to summarise the data and get an idea of its
structure. You will learn about bivariate data visualisation later in the course.
The next section will briefly explain frequency tables.

2.1 Frequency tables

Before learning how to make frequency tables and histograms in Excel, you first need to
know what a frequency distribution is, and why we need histograms.
The frequency of a value is the number of times that value appears in a data set. A
frequency distribution table displays the pattern of frequencies of a variable in a tabular
form. It gives the information of how many times each value of a variable occurs in a data
set. A frequency distribution table is an effective way to summarise and organise the
collected raw data so that all its features are summarised in a table form. The first step
that a researcher or analyst must do with collected raw data is to organise and present the
data in such a way that makes it meaningful and easy to digest.
Frequency distribution tables are also called frequency tables, and in practice both terms
are used interchangeably. In short, a frequency table gives you a snapshot of how your
data is distributed and spread out.
A frequency distribution table has two columns: Column A and Column B. Column A
presents the outcome of the values and Column B presents the frequency of the
outcomes. You can understand this better with the example below.

Anna is an analyst, and she works Monday and Tuesday in a hospital. On

Wednesday and Thursday, she works in a small accounting firm. On Friday,
Saturday and Sunday she works in a bank.
Now you can display this data through a frequency distribution table, as shown in
Figure 7.

Figure 7 Displaying the data in the frequency distribution table

This table gives you a clear idea of how many days Anna works in each different
organisation.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

In the next section, you will learn about various types of frequency distribution table.

2.2 Types of frequency distribution

There are four types of frequency distribution table:

● ungrouped frequency distribution

● grouped frequency distribution
● relative frequency distribution
● cumulative frequency distribution.

Before describing each type of frequency distribution table, you need to know the
difference between ungrouped data and grouped data.
In simple terms, ungrouped data is raw data that has not been categorised. For example,
a manager in a firm knows that 100 employees work in their firm; this is raw data because
it does not tell you how many employees work in each department (e.g. production and
sales). However, if you have raw data that is categorised, it is defined as grouped data.
For example, if this manager knows that 50 employees work in production and
50 employees work in sales, it means that the data is organised in such a way that it
provides a clear indication of how many employees work in each department.

2.2.1 Concepts involved in frequency tables

The following terms are frequently used in frequency distribution:
Class interval or class limit: the lowest and the highest value defined for a class or
group are called class limits. The lowest value is called the lower-class limit and the
highest value is called the upper-class limit of that class. In the example in Table 5, the
lower-class limits are 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and the upper limits are 8, 10, 12, 14, 16. The terms
class and class interval are often used interchangeably, although the class interval is a
symbol for the class.
Class boundaries: a class boundary is the number that is used to separate the two
different classes. It is the midpoint between the upper limit of a class and the lower limit of
the next class. Each class has both an upper and a lower limit boundary. The lower
boundary of a class is calculated by subtracting half of the value of the interval from the
lower-class limit, while the upper boundary of a class is calculated by adding half of the
value of the interval to the upper-class limit.
Referring to the example from JC Electrics, its class boundaries are given in Table 5.

Table 5 Class intervals and

boundaries for JC Electrics

Class intervals Class boundaries

7–8 6.5–8.5

9–10 8.5–10.5

11–12 10.5–12.5
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

13–14 12.5–14.5

15–16 14.5–16.5

Referring to Table 5, you can say that the lower limit of the first-class interval is 6.5, as all
values between 6.5 and 7.5 are recorded as 7. Meanwhile, the upper-class limit of 8 is
8.5, as all values between 7.5 and 8.5 are recorded as 8. The real class limit of a class is
called a class boundary. A class boundary is obtained by adding two successive class
limits and dividing the sum by 2. The value so obtained is taken as the upper-class
boundary for the previous class, and lower-class boundary for the next class.
Midpoint or class mark: this is the average of a class interval, and is obtained by dividing
the sum of upper- and lower-class limits by 2. Thus, the class mark of the interval 7–8 is
7.5, as (7+8)/2=7.5.
The size or the width of a class interval: the size, or width, of a class interval is the
difference between the lower- and upper-class boundaries and is also referred to as the
class width, class size, or class length. If all class intervals of a frequency distribution have
equal widths, this common width is denoted by c.
Range: this is the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the
data set. For example, in the JC Electrics data set the maximum number of Electric
Motors sold has a value of 25, while the minimum is 14. Hence, to calculate the range, you
must calculate 25–14=11.

2.2.2 Ungrouped frequency distribution tables

When you are summarising small amounts of data, then it is better to organise and
represent it in an ungrouped frequency distribution table. This is a type of distribution that
shows how many times each individual value occurs in a data set; they are usually used to
calculate the accurate frequency of individual data values.
For example, say you are interested to know how many plants people have in their
homes. A survey gives the following figures as number of plants that 18 different people
have in their homes:
Number of plants = 1, 5, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3
To answer your question, first you need to see the frequency of each value in the data.
Value 1 occur 4 times, so you can describe it as 4 people having 1 plant. Then you do the
same for the rest of the values, so: 3 people have 2 plants, 6 people have 3 plants, 2
people have 4 plants, and 3 people have 5 plants.
In the following activity, you will learn how to make ungrouped frequency tables in Excel.

Activity 2 How to make an ungrouped frequency table in Excel

Allow approximately 30 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you will learn how to make an ungrouped frequency table in Excel.
Once you have produced the ungrouped frequency table in Excel, you may need to
compare it with the final output by clicking ‘Reveal discussion’. This will help you to
see whether you have produced the accurate ungrouped frequency table or not.
Watch Video 1, which gives on how to create a frequency table, or follow the
instructions below.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 1

● Open the Excel file JC Electrics. This file contains the quarterly data of
number of generators sold. Make sure that the data is arranged in columns.
● Copy the data containing the number of generators sold to Column A of a new
worksheet.
● Label Column B ‘Value’ and label Column C ‘Frequency’.
● Find the minimum and maximum value in the data. In this example:
=MAX(A5:A28), which is 15, and =MIN(A5:A28), which is 7
● Calculate the range: (MAX – MIN), so .

● Arrange the values in Column A in ascending order. Select the values

(A5:A28) in Column A, click Data in the toolbar and then click Sort, select
Continue with current selection and press Enter. Figure 8 shows how your
information should be displayed.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Figure 8 Arranging the data from ascending to descending order

● To count the number of quarters in which 7 units were sold, you need to
calculate the frequency in Column C. Type =COUNTIF (Range, value). For
example, =COUNTIF (A5:A28,7)

Figure 9 Calculating the frequency of ungroup data

● You should now save your file as you will return to this ungrouped frequency
table in a later activity.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Discussion

Figure 10 Ungrouped frequency table

Figure 10 above shows the completed frequency table. The same data is shown in
Table 6 below.

Table 6 Ungrouped
frequency table

Value Frequency

7 4

8 2

9 5

10 2

11 3

12 3

13 2

14 2

15 1

As is mentioned above, ungrouped frequency tables are useful when you have a small set
of data and you want to easily observe the frequency of each value in the data set.
However, if you have a large data set then a grouped frequency distribution table is the
best option; you will learn about these in the next section.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

2.2.3 Grouped frequency distribution tables

When you are summarising large amounts of raw data, it is useful to represent the data in
groups. The groups are commonly known as classes or class intervals. You might then
want to determine the number of values belonging to each class or class interval; this is
called class frequency. A tabular arrangement of data by class together with the
corresponding class frequencies is called a grouped frequency distribution table. This is a
more efficient way to find the trends within the data, but there is a possibility that the
grouping process may sacrifice much of the original detail of the data.
In the following activity, you will learn how to make a grouped frequency table in Excel.

Activity 3 How to make a grouped frequency distribution table in Excel

Allow approximately 30 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you need to produce a grouped frequency table in Excel either by
watching the screencast in Video 2 or by following the instructions given below.
Once you have produced the grouped frequency table in Excel, you can check your
answer by clicking ‘Reveal discussion’.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 2

● Open the Excel file JC Electrics. This file contains quarterly data of the
number of generators sold. Make sure that the data is arranged in columns.
● Find the range which is the difference between the maximum and minimum
value in the data set. You can do this either by entering the formula =MAX
(A2:A25)-MIN (A2:A25), or by simply using the results you have calculated in
Column H as, =H10-H11 (see Figure 11).
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Figure 11 Calculating the range

● Decide the class interval width. There are no firm rules on how to choose the
width. However, the following formula is the most common method to calculate
the width:

● You can round this value to a whole number or a number that is convenient to
add (such as multiple of 10). For example, the width calculated in the given
data set is 1.6, so will be taken as 2 (see Figure 12).

Figure 12 Calculating the width

● Decide the number of groups or class intervals into which data is to be

distributed. Each class interval is defined by a lower limit and an upper limit.
The lower limit of first-class interval is the lowest value in the data set. Add the
class interval width to find the upper limit of the first interval and the lower limit
of the next class interval. Keep adding the interval width to calculate more class
intervals until you exceed the highest value. For example, in the given data set,
you determined the class intervals width equals 2, so you should make the
class intervals as 7–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, 15–16.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

● This means that the first-class interval has lower limit of 7 and upper limit of 8.
See Figure 13 below.

Figure 13 Maing the class intervals

● The next step is to calculate the frequency. Select the range E2:E6 and enter
FREQUENCY function as shown in the Figure 14 in the discussion.
● Press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to submit the FREQUENCY formula above as
an array formula. If it is entered correctly, you would see a formula wrapped in
curly braces {}.
● You should now save your file as you will return to this grouped frequency table
in a later activity.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Discussion

Figure 14 Calculating the frequency by using an array formula

Figure 14 shows the results of using the array formula to calculate frequency. It is
important to be aware that any error entered may result in an incorrect grouped
frequency table and provide false information about the business.

As mentioned above, a grouped frequency table is the best option to visualise the
frequency of values in a large data set. However, if you are interested to know the
proportion of a particular value in relation to the total number of values in the data set,
then a relative frequency distribution table is the better option. In the next section, you will
learn how to produce a relative frequency table in Excel.

2.2.4 Relative frequency distribution tables

Relative frequency distribution is another type of frequency distribution. This type of
distribution tells you the proportion of each value or class interval of a variable. In other
words, relative frequency distribution describes the number of times a particular value
occurs in relation to the total number of values. You can use this type of frequency
distribution for any type of variable when you are more interested in comparing
frequencies than the actual number of observations.
For example, Team A has won 6 football games from a total of 12 football games played.
The frequency of winning is 6 and the relative frequency of winning is 50% (i.e. 60/
12=0.5).
You will learn how to make a relative frequency table in Excel in the following activity.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Activity 4 How to make a relative frequency table in Excel

Allow approximately 30 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you will build a relative frequency table using the ungrouped
frequency distribution table from Activity 2. Once you have made the relative
frequency distribution table in Excel, check your answer by clicking ‘Reveal
discussion’ below.
The ungrouped frequency distribution table consists of three columns. Column A is
labelled ‘Generators’, Column B is labelled ‘Value’ and Column C is labelled
‘Frequency’. Add a fourth column to the table for the relative frequencies.
To calculate the relative frequencies, you need to divide each frequency by the
sample size (frequency / sample size). You can calculate the sample size by taking
the sum of all the frequencies in Column C, which is 24.

Discussion

Figure 15 Calculating the relative frequency of ungrouped data

Figure 15 represents the quarterly data of number of units of generators sold.
Column A (‘Generators’) contains values between 7 to 15. Column B is labelled
‘Value’. Column C is labelled ‘Frequency’.
To calculate the relative frequency in Column D, you need to divide each frequency
by sample size. The sample size of 24 can be found by summing the ‘Frequency’
column.

In the next section, you will learn how to make cumulative frequency distribution tables in
Excel.

2.2.5 Cumulative frequency distribution tables

Cumulative frequency distribution is the fourth type of frequency distribution table. It is the
sum of the frequencies less than or equal to each value or class interval of a variable. This
type of frequency distribution can be used for ordinal or quantitative variables,
especially when you want to understand how often observations fall below certain values.
For example, Company A sells 250 books in the first week, 150 books in the second week
and 400 books in the third week. The cumulative number of books sold in the second
week by Company A is 400 books (250 books in the first week + 150 books in the second
week). The cumulative number in the third week is 800 books (250 books in the first
week + 150 books in the second week + 400 books in the third week).
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

In the following activity, you will learn how to build a cumulative frequency distribution
table in Excel.

Activity 5 How to make a cumulative frequency distribution table in

Excel

Allow approximately 30 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you will build a cumulative frequency distribution table using the
grouped frequency distribution table in Activity 3. Once you have built the
cumulative frequency distribution table, you can check your answer by clicking
‘Reveal discussion’ below.
Borrow the grouped frequency distribution table from Activity 3. This table consists
of five columns. Column A is labelled Generators, Column B is labelled Class
intervals, Column C is labelled Lower limit of class interval, Column D is labelled
Upper limit of class interval and Column E is labelled Frequency.
Add another column, Column F, to the table for the cumulative frequency. The
cumulative frequency is calculated by adding each frequency from a frequency
distribution table to the sum of its predecessors. The last value will always be equal
to the total for all observations, since all frequencies will already have been added to
the previous total.

Discussion

Figure 16 Calculating the cumulative frequency

Figure 16 presents the data of the number of generators sold. Column A
(‘Generators’) shows the values between 7 to 15 in ascending order. Column B
shows the class intervals. Column C shows the values of the lower limit of each
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

class intervals. Column D shows the values of upper limit of each class intervals.
Column E shows the frequency.
To calculate the cumulative frequency in Column F, add each frequency to the
frequencies in the previous rows. If you do it correctly, the value in the last row will
be equal to the sample size.

In the next section, you will learn how to visualise these tables by drawing histograms in
Excel.

2.3 Histograms: a graphical visualisation of frequency

tables
A histogram is a popular visualisation tool to summarise the distribution of continuous
data. In a histogram, the variable is divided into intervals called ‘bins’. You then count the
number of observations in each bin and plot the resulting table in a bar chart. The
horizontal x-axis displays the ‘bins’ and the vertical y-axis displays the number of
observations in each bin. Histograms can help you to see whether the data is clustered
around certain values or whether there are many small or many large values. A typical
histogram in Excel looks like the bar chart below. Note that the values on the x-axis show
the upper limit of the interval. In a proper histogram, there are no spaces or gaps between
the bars.

Figure 17 A typical histogram in Excel

In the following activity, you will learn how to plot a histogram in Excel.

Activity 6 Using Excel to draw a histogram

Allow approximately 35 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you will learn how to produce a histogram in Excel by following the
instructions that are given below. Once you have produced the histogram in Excel,
you can check your answer by clicking ‘Reveal discussion’ below.

● Open the Excel file called JC Electrics, which contains the quarterly data of
number of generators sold. The third column C contains information about the
number of generators sold in each quarter of the year.
● Find the minimum and maximum value in the data set. You can obtain them
through the min (range) and max (range) functions in Excel. Type
=MAX(A5:A28) into cell L10 and =MIN(A5:A28) into cell L11. This will give the
minimum and maximum values of the data set, which are 7 and 15.
● Next, you need to specify a range of intervals (often called ‘bins’) for which to
count the number of observations that fall into each bin. The maximum value is
15 and the minimum value is 7, so you can make the class intervals 7–8, 9–10,
11–12, 13–14, 14–15, 15–16 etc. This means that the first class has the lower
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

value 7 and the maximum value 8 and so on. See Columns C and D in the
worksheet in Figure 18.

Figure 18 A frequency distribution table in Excel

● There are many ways to calculate the width of the bin in Excel. One of the
easiest ways to calculate it is as the width of the bin or class intervals (sample
size / range), which is 3 (i.e. 24/8=3). In this example, the bin width is 2.
● Click on ‘Data Analysis’ in the ‘Data’ ribbon. This will bring up a list of some of
the statistical analyses that you can perform in Excel.
● Select ‘Histogram’ and click ‘OK’.
● Specify the input range as A5:A28 and the bin range as D5:D9
● Tick the box ‘Chart Output’ and specify the output location as H5, as shown in
Figure 19 below.

Figure 19 Histogram dialog box in Excel

2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Click ‘OK’. Excel will put the histogram next to your frequency table.

Figure 20 Histogram of number of units sold (Generators)

● To remove the space between the bars, right click a bar, click Format Data
Series, and change the Gap Width to 0%.
● To add borders, right click a bar, click Format Data Series, click the Fill & Line
icon, click Border, and select a colour.
● Now click ‘Reveal discussion’ to compare what you have made against the
answer.

Discussion

Figure 21 Histogram showing units sold of generators

Working through the steps given above should return the completed histogram
shown in Figure 21.

2.4 Frequency density

Frequency density is defined as the frequency per unit of the data in each class.
Frequency density is calculated by dividing the frequency by the class width (the class
width is the difference between the upper limit of the class interval and the lower limit of
the class interval). Frequency density allows for a meaningful comparison of different
classes where the class width may not be equal.

The frequency density gives the ratio of the frequency of a class to its width.
Frequency density is used to plot a frequency density histogram; here, you plot frequency
density instead of frequency on the y-axis. Frequency density gives you the total area of
bars and tells you about the frequency in the histogram (rather than the height).
You can calculate frequency density when you have a set of grouped data that consists of
unequal widths of class intervals. For example, see the following Excel worksheet in
Figure 22, which shows information about the ages of a group of people playing football.
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Figure 22 Information about the age of people playing football in an Excel file
To calculate the frequency densities:

● In Column C, find the class width of the class intervals by finding the difference of
upper and lower bounds/limits. (For example, , and so on.)

Figure 23 Calculating the class width

● Then, in Column D, divide the frequency of each class interval by its width.

Figure 24 Calculating the frequency density

In the activity below, you will test your knowledge of the difference between a frequency
density histogram and a frequency histogram.

Activity 7 The difference between frequency histograms and frequency

density histograms

Allow approximately 15 minutes to complete this activity

Watch the video below and note down in the box the difference between frequency
histograms and frequency density histograms.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 3
2 Univariate data visualisation 22/07/24

Provide your answer...

3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

3 Bivariate data
Bivariate data refers to an instance in which two separate variables are examined and
compared. For example, a performance manager may be interested to know how well
employees perform their work, that is, to measure the efficiency of the employees. In this
example, the performance manager may examine two variables: the number of tasks they
complete and the quality of the tasks.
Bivariate data is collected to explore the relationship between two variables and then use
this relationship to inform future decisions. One of the main aims of the researcher is to
find out whether changes in one variable may be caused by changes in another variable.
This type of research involves two basic types of variables: independent variables and
dependent variables.
Independent variables: an independent variable is one that stands alone and is not
changed by the other variable you are trying to measure. The researcher changes the
independent variable to see the effect it will have on the dependent variable.
Dependent variables: a dependent variable is the one that changes because of
independent variable manipulation. It is the outcome you are interested in measuring,
and it ‘depends’ on your independent variable. In statistics, dependent variables are also
called response variables (as they respond to a change in another variable).
For example, say a researcher is interested to know whether mature students’
performance in a maths class changes based on the time of the class. To answer this
question, the researcher measures mature students’ performance in a morning class and
an evening class. The study finds that mature students perform better in the evening class
than in the morning class.
What are the independent and dependent variables in the example above? The
independent variable is the time of the class, and the dependent variable is mature
students’ performance in maths, as it might change in relation to the independent variable.
In the next activity, you will expand your knowledge of bivariate data.

Activity 8 Bivariate data

Allow approximately 15 minutes to complete this activity

Watch the following video and make notes on bivariate data in the free response
box below.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 4
3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

Provide your answer...

Bivariate data can be visualised using contingency tables and scatter diagrams. In the
next section you will learn about contingency tables.

3.1 Contingency tables

A contingency table is called a cross table or two-way table and counts observations for
each unique combination of values in two variables. It is a table of data in which the row
entries tabulate the data according to one variable and the column entries tabulate the
data according to another variable.
The tool best suited for a data set will depend on the variable’s scale of measurement.
The most important distinction here is whether a variable is discrete or continuous. If it is
discrete, a convenient method to summarise bivariate data is a contingency table. If it is
continuous, a scatter diagram can be more useful in visualising the data set.
Contingency tables are used in statistics to understand the relationship between
categorical variables. For example, say you want to summarise the following sample of
firms in Table 7 regarding their industry sector and size.

Table 7 Sample of firms

Firm Sector Employees

1 Technology <50

2 Food 50+

3 Technology <50
3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

4 Food <50

5 Food <50

6 Food 50+

7 Technology <50

8 Technology <50

9 Technology 50+

10 Food 50+

See the following cross table (Table 8), which summarises the information of the sample
data. It counts the number of firms for each combination of sector and number of
employees.

Table 8 Cross table for sample firms

Sector <50 Employees 50+ Employees Total

employees

Technology 4 0 4

Food 2 4 6

Total 6 4 10

The cross table shows that there are two firms in the food manufacturing sector that have
less than 50 employees. However, the cell 50+ shows that there are four firms in the food
manufacturing sector that have more than 50 employees. The sum of the total food
manufacturing firm is six which is the 60% of the grand total.
Contingency tables vary in size and type because the size of the contingency table
depends on the sample size and number of observations.
There is no formula to draw a contingency table in Excel. However, analysts use a
PivotTable to build contingency tables. A PivotTable is considered a powerful statistical
tool to summarise bivariate and multivariate data sets in an Excel spreadsheet or
database table and obtain the desired report. This tool does not actually change the
spreadsheet or database itself; it simply pivots or turns the data to view it from different
perspectives. Researchers and analysts use PivotTables especially when they have large
amounts of data that would be time consuming to calculate by hand. A PivotTable can
perform a few data processing functions such as identifying sums, averages, ranges or
outliers. It then arranges this information in a simple and meaningful way that draws
attention to key values. If you would like to experiment with PivotTables, go to the ‘Insert’
ribbon in Excel and select ‘PivotTable’.

3.2 Scatter diagrams

A scatter diagram is another way to visualise a quantitative bivariate data set. This is a
two-dimensional diagram or graph with one variable on the x-axis (the independent
3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

variable) and the other variable on the y-axis (the dependent variable). You can then plot
the corresponding point on the diagram.
In the next activity, you will produce a scatter diagram in Excel either by following the
video or the instructions provided.

Activity 9 Drawing scatter diagrams

Allow approximately 35 minutes to complete this activity

The screencast in Video 5 gives you instructions on how to draw scatter plots in
Excel.

Video content is not available in this format.

Video 5

Look at the following example, which shows a data set relating to the temperature
on several days in June, and the number of Pepsi drinks sold in a small shop.

Table 9 Temperature and number of drinks sold

Temperature
12 14 15 17 22 13 20 23
(X)

Pepsi (Y) 12 16 16 19 32 10 24 40

Here, temperature is the independent variable and number of drinks is the

dependent variable, as the sale of Pepsi is affected by changes in the temperature.
Hence, you will plot temperature on the x-axis and drinks on the y-axis.
3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

To find out if there is any relationship between variable X (Temperature) and

variable Y (Pepsi), execute the following steps in Excel.

● Select the range A1:B9

Figure 25 Spreadsheet of Pepsi sold and Temperature

● On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Scatter symbol.

Figure 26 How to select the Scatter symbol

● This will open a drop-down menu showing various types of scatter plots. The
standard type is the one with unconnected dots in the top left. Click the Scatter
symbol to insert this chart.

Figure 27 How to select the Scatter chart type

3 Bivariate data 22/07/24

Discussion

Figure 28 Temperature versus Pepsi sales

The final image shows the positive relationship between the number of Pepsis sold
and the temperature. This shows that as the temperature increases, sales of Pepsi
also increase.
Conclusion 22/07/24

Conclusion
In this course, you have started to familiarise yourself with the spreadsheet software
Excel, which is widely used in workplaces, and useful in many different fields and
contexts: for example, in business, medicine, marketing, tax and auditing, accounting and
finance.
You have also studied the basics of data analysis. The focus here was on the several
ways to visualise and summarise data using tools available in Microsoft Excel, such as
frequency tables, histograms, and scatter diagrams or plots. The main objective of data
analysis and statistical modelling is to help make more evidence-based decisions. The
various data visualisation tools studied in this course are only the first step toward starting
the decision-making process using data.
The next step could be to study descriptive statistics, which gets you closer to a
comprehensive analysis of the data. You could then become more confident when
examining and summarising data and using Excel tools such as measures of location and
measures of dispersion to numerically analyse data.
A second OpenLearn course on data analysis, Data analysis: hypothesis testing, is now
also available should you wish to take your studies further.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course
B126 Business data analytics and decision making.
Acknowledgements 22/07/24

Acknowledgements
This free course was written by Henry Lahr.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this
content is made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to
Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources
for permission to reproduce material in this free course:
Course image: ismagilov / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Figure 1: jadamprostore / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Figures 2–28: © Excel
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently
overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the
first opportunity.
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