Error Bars, also called error bands or confidence intervals, are an easy way to show the level of uncertainty associated with a particular number.

As predicted values are calculated using statistical methods, it is impossible to give an exact value. Error bars provide the bounds of the likely range for the true value.

There are different ways to add error bars to your chart in Excel. In this article, we will discuss how to add error bars in excel.

Ways to add Error Bars in Excel

Adding Error Bars in Excel

The Excel chart error bars feature is a graphics tool that’s primarily utilized when examining a dataset to calculate standard deviations and errors, in order to find the degree to which the elements of your set differ from the mean.

If you work in a business environment where data with these characteristics can make a difference in terms of how it’s analyzed and interpreted, then this feature of Excel is likely one you’ll use.

In any case, seeing as common business circumstances such as applying metrics and testing new equipment or software rely on just such statistics, we highly recommend that anyone who uses this charting platform begins familiarizing him or herself with the steps below:

1. To add standard error bars, first, click on the chart, then click on the plus sign to open the menu. Select Error Bars > Standard Error.
2. You have to select the error bar box. If you choose to Remove All you can remove all the error bars.
3. Now you have to click on standard error.
4. For further customization of the graph, select More options; here you can change intervals (for example change default value 5 to 10), remove or show a specific error bar (for example if selected only error bar 1 will be visible), and also use colors.

Adding Custom Error Bars in Excel

Most of the time, you’ll probably use default error bars provided by Microsoft Excel, but if there are times when this isn’t sufficient anymore to fulfill your needs, you can create custom error bars or custom error bar rules.

To create or apply custom error bar rules, follow these steps:

1. Click on the chart.
2. Click on the plus sign in the top-right corner (Chart Elements button).
3. Select More Options. Under Error Bars, select Custom and enter a value for Horizontal and Vertical Error values.
4. A small window opens up called Custom Error Bars which will display the calculated change between data points based on what you’ve entered in both Positive Error Value and Negative Error Value.

If you don’t want a custom bar to be displayed, simply leave the fields empty. If you do want a custom bar to be added to each entry in your dataset, enter 0 as the field value.

If you would like an error bar to be displayed under each value, enter a number greater than zero in the Corresponding Type textbox.

Creating Individual Error Bars in Excel

Most Sheets have likely entered values into the cells adjacent to columns of which are the source of the data. A better option would be to create a new sheet and insert all values so that they can become separate elements on the said graph.

From here, one could position this data on the X-axis of the graph plotting points, so to speak. There are algorithms embedded in some formulas developed by Google.

This is great because it will help resize each plotted piece appropriately based on how many errors were found within each cell of that spreadsheet’s spreadsheet or workbook.

1. Click on the chart.
2. Click on the plus sign in the top-right corner.
3. Select More Options. Under Error Bars, select Custom and enter a value for Horizontal and Vertical Error values.
4. To remove all values from the “Error Bar Options” area, click the arrow next to it and select 0. Copy this value into the two other error bar options areas by highlighting one of them than copying that value into the other two by pressing Ctrl + C then Ctrl + V.
5. Lastly, find your cursor within your spreadsheet cell selection box and click to create individual error bars capable of displaying any number between the maximum and minimum error bar ranges.

FAQs Related to the Topic

How do I add error bars in Excel 2021?

To start, click on the chart and then select the Chart Elements button (the + symbol) in the upper right. To enable the error bar, you have to check the error bar box.

What do Error bars show?

Error bars indicate how much a particular measurement deviates from the mean. From this, one can work out what range of values is most likely to be considered correct.

Conclusion

For the data visualization, the bar chart is the most popular one, which is used to describe the quantitative data.

The common bar chart includes one or more bars that are plotted on the horizontal axis. The bar chart shows the comparison between the different data groups.

It can be used to show the value of one data group in comparison to another. The bar chart is usually used to show the exact numbers.

But sometimes, it is not suitable for the data, which cannot be compared directly. We had discussed in this article how to add error bars in excel. If you have any queries regarding this, then tell us in the comment section.

For more information about Microsoft Excel visit our blog page on the website.