Graphing Two Lines Using a Scatter Plot with Connected Lines

Introduction

In this lesson you will learn how to graph two lines in Excel, using a scatter plot.

It is often helpful to graph more than one set of data on the same chart. This helps you better compare the two sets of data. Excel can help you do this.

This video illustrates the lesson material below. Watching the video is optional.

Graphing Two Lines Using a Scatter Plot with Connected Lines (05:58 mins) | Transcript

Setting Up Data

The first thing you will do is make a table in Excel.

The first column will hold the values of the independent variable (usually the x-axis values).
Put the corresponding dependent variable (y-axis) values in additional columns.

Be sure to include labels for the columns.

Three columns, each with 20 rows beneath the column headers. The first column is labeled year. The second is labeled Data 1. The third is labeled Data 2. The year column numbers from 1 to 20. The Data 1 column numbers from 16000 to 35000. The Data 2 column numbers from 21000 to 59000.

Figure 1

An independent variable is a variable that can stand by itself and isn’t changed by other variables. Notice in the picture above, the Year column holds the independent variable.

Data 1 and Data 2 are the dependent variables. If there was not a year to measure against, the data would not exist. The dependent variable can sometimes be referred to as the outcome variable.

Creating the Chart

There are a series of steps that must be followed when creating a scatter plot.

Highlight all the data you would like to plot, including the column titles.
Go to the Insert tab.
Find the Charts section and select Scatter.
Select one of the scatter plot icons that connects the dots with a line.

Illustration of the steps above

Figure 2

Edit ranges, axis titles, chart titles, and anything else you want to adjust. You can do this by doing the following:

Select the chart
Select the Chart menu
Select the desired elements in the Labels and Axes groups.

Illustration of the steps above

Figure 3

Feel free to explore different settings; this is the best way to familiarize yourself with the program.

Things to Remember

To make a scatter plot you must have an independent variable and a dependent variable.

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