Year over Year (monthly) comparisons when Monthly Values are in asingle Column

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave K
  • Start date Start date
D

Dave K

Is there a best method of showing Year over Year chart comparisons
(data displayed by Month) when the monthly data points are displayed
in a single column?

Thanks for any suggestions or examples.

Data is displayed like this:

201011 Value
201010 Value
201009 Value
Etc....
 
Is there a best method of showing Year over Year chart
comparisons (data displayed by Month) when the monthly
data points are displayed in a single column? [....]
Data is displayed like this:
201011   Value
201010   Value
201009   Value
Etc....

There are so many omissions in your question, I don't know if anyone
can answer it unless they get lucky with wild-a.s.s guesses.

First, what do you mean by "comparison"? I would guess %difference.

Second, are there gaps in your dates? If not, then if your dates are
in A1:A1200 and your values are in B1:B1200, the year-over-year
%difference is =A1/A13-1 in C1, which you can copy down column C.

As for charting, note that your dates are in descending. I would
prefer to see a chart in ascending oder. So __before__ you create the
formulas in column C, I would sort columns A:B in __ascending__ order
of column A. In that case, you probably want to compute %difference
with =A13/A1-1 starting in C13, which you can copy down column C.

Third, does that address your question; or is your question about how
to use the chart the data in column C using the Chart Wizard (hint!)?

However, finally, if there are gaps in your dates, the "best" solution
depends on whether the dates displayed in column A are actually stored
as Excel dates and displayed with the format Custom yyyymm. If not,
how are those dates stored: as text or as numbers? And would you be
willing to change the date representation to Excel dates, using the
Custom format to retain their current appearance?
 
As for charting, note that your dates are in descending.
 I would prefer to see a chart in ascending oder.  So
__before__ you create the formulas in column C, I would
sort columns A:B in __ascending__ order of column A.

I just saw your companion posting at
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.excel/browse_frm/thread/de19d3e9ab7978b3#
..

(Bad idea to split related question that way.)

If my suggestion for fixing the Y-axis after selecting "Values in
reverse order" for the X-axis works, there is no need to sort the
actual data.
 
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