HistogramsCapital Credit UnionHistogramsCapital Credit Union

Issue: Analyze credit card balances for Capital Credit Union customers using a frequency distribution and histogram.

Objective: Use Excel 2007 to develop a frequency distribution and histogram for credit card balances. Use ten class intervals.

Data file is Capital.xls

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

• Open the Excel file “Capital.xls”

• The file contains 300 observations – The last row is 302 – Column 2 (B) contains the balances

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Use Excel’s “Max” function to determine the largest valueMax(b2:b301)

Note: ignore the cell number in the RED circle

c

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Use Excel’s Min function to determine the smallest value

Min(b2:b301)

Note: ignore the cell number in the RED circle

c

Histograms-Capital Credit UnionCompute Class Width• Compute range as Maximum –

Minimum: 1493 – 99 = 1394

Excel: 2^k >= n (300)

2^8=256 and 2^9=512

Take 10 instead of 9 because of convenience

Divide range by 10 to construct 10 classes: 1394 / 10 = 139.40• Round up to $150.00 (width)Intervals are:• $90 to < $240 (90+150)• $240 to < $390• $390 to < $540 Etc…

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Intervals are:1. $90 to < $239.99 2. $240 to < $389.993. $390 to < $539.994. $540 to < $689.995. $690 to < $839.996. Go on7. …..8. …..9. ….10.…..11.…< $1589.99

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Construct the Bins (The upper limits of each classIntervals are:• $90 to <

$239.99

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

• Select the Data tab• Select Data Analysis• Select Histogram• OK

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Input Range is Column B.Bin Range is Column F – The range of Bins that you entered.Select New Worksheet PlySelect Chart OutputOK

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

This is Excel’s default output. It should be modified for most applications. The first change would be to delete the Frequency legend , change the Bins title to Balances and increase the size of the chart using the resize handles.

Frequency legend

Bins Title Sizing

Handle

Excel’s default on a histogram is to include a More category. Remove the More category from the chart. Select the chart, right mouse click, Select Data, Edit Frequency. In the Edit Series dialog box, change Series Values to $B$11 rather than $B$12. Click OK.

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

• Right click on any of the bars in the Histogram

• Select Format Data Series

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Set Series Overlap and Gap Width to Zero to format the Histogram as shown

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

To put border colors around the bars of the histogram , select Border Color, Choose Solid line, Select the Color arrow, and Choose Dark Blue, Text 2 Theme Color.

Histograms-Capital Credit Union

Change the Bins categories to 0-239.99, 240-389.99, etc. and delete the More bins and frequency. Change the Histogram title to Credit Card Balances. See next slide for results of these changes.

Histograms-Capital Credit Union