Excel Fun - Data, series, and statistics oh my

October 11, 2007 12:30 PM

In Excel, is there a way to take a data series and cherry pick which cells I would like to include?

In Excel, is there a way to take a list of data, and perhaps with some sort of check-box method choose which data I would like to include in some sort of grouping. For instance I have a list of data from various countries, however I am only intersted in using the data from certain countries for my analysis, but all the data comes in from download drop. How can I pick out which points I will do my analysis on? (i.e. make a graph) Does this exist? What a dull question, I know. Thank you for any help thou!

posted by Carialle to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Check out Pivot Tables.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:34 PM on October 11, 2007

You can sort a whole table of data by one column (Make sure the columns all have names at the top, Select all data, Go to Data...Sort and then choose the column name to sort by).

Maybe you already have the column you want (country name). Or you could make a new column with yes/no, which would be the equivalent of your checkbox, then sort by that. After sorting, you can make your graph or do your analysis, just on the the data you want or copy and paste just that data to another sheet.
posted by hydropsyche at 12:36 PM on October 11, 2007

Also AutoFilter.
posted by junesix at 12:36 PM on October 11, 2007

If there is no good way to select the data you want by sorting or filtering, you can add one more column filled with zeros to your data. Then scan down the list, changing the 0 to 1 for points you want to include. When you're done, sort or filter according to the flag column.
posted by the number 17 at 2:12 PM on October 11, 2007

Seconding jocelmeow's answer; that is the very case for which pivot tables were meant. You can make drop-down filterings and sortings of your datasets, and use that as your graphed/displayed data.
posted by hincandenza at 2:16 PM on October 11, 2007