There are a ton of different types of charts and graphs that you can create in Google Sheets to create a visualization that will allow you to more easily determine trends in your data.
When of the most useful types of charts when you want to look at trendlines is the scatter plot.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a scatter plot in Google Sheets.
Table of Contents
What is a Scatter Plot?
A scatter plot also called a scatter chart or scatter graph is a kind of graph that uses dots to show values for different variables. Scatter plots are used to view relationships between different numeric variables. Generally when we look at scatter plots we want to look at correlational relationships between our variables.
Here is an example scatter plot:
Making a Scatter Plot In Google Sheets
To create a scatter chart in Google Sheets, here is what you need to do:
1. First you need to have your data in your spreadsheet. Here is the data that I will use to create a scatter plot:
2. Next, highlight the data that will be used to create your chart
3. In the top menu select Insert>Chart
4. Sometimes Google Sheets will automatically select a Scatter chart for your data. Other times you will have to go into the Setup tab and change the Chart type to Scatter chart
5. You should now see a scatter chart created for the data you highlighted in step 2
Closing Thoughts
Scatter plots are very easy to make in your spreadsheet by quickly inserting a chart for your chosen data. They can allow you to more easily identify correlations and trends between your X and Y variables.
In my example chart, you can see that as the sale price increased (the X variable) the units sold decreased (the Y variable).
This is just a quick intro to making the type of graph in your sheet. There are a ton of other ways you can customize and edit this, but that I will cover that at a later time.
More Google Sheets Tutorials:
How to Make a Histogram
How to Make a Candlestick Chart
How to Find Slope
How to Make a Line Graph