Error Bars help make column charts as accurate as possible. Better yet, you can make these in Google Sheets! It is a really quick to learn trick that will make you bar graphs really accurate.
They essentially display the level of deviation according to some set percent error. The larger the value, the larger the error and vice versa.
Select Your Chart
I went ahead and made a fictional bar graph for us to use in this walkthrough.
As you can see, we have quite a lot of data, and who knows if everyone recorded their earnings with 100% accuracy? That is where an Error Bar will come in.
Edit Chart
Click on the chart and select the three dots in the top-right corner. Then select the first option available (Edit Chart) and it will open up the Chart Editor.
under the Chart Editor select the Customize tab, opening that menu.
Navigating the Customize Section
Next, open the series tab and at the bottom you will find the Error Bars option.
Under Series, you will be able to find the Error Bars option.
Select Error Bars
Finally, you can customize and insert your error bar and really let it give you the best picture of any potential deviations.
Other Types include:
- Constant
- Standard Deviation
- Etc.
When inserting an error bar into your google sheets charts, your desired error bar type is up to you, though I like to use percentage.
And there you have it, that is how you can create an error bar in Google Sheets! Error Bars are a really helpful visual for any chart in google sheets. with it, you will have a clear view of every possible error in your data.