Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 38: Analyzing Data with the Analysis ToolPak

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FIGURE 38.5

Output from the F-Test tool.

Fourier Analysis

The Fourier Analysis tool performs a “fast Fourier” transformation of a range of data. Using the

Fourier Analysis tool, you can transform a range limited to the following sizes: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,

64, 128, 256, 512, or 1,024 data points. This procedure accepts and generates complex numbers,

which are represented as text string (not numerical values).

Histogram

The Histogram tool is useful for producing data distributions and histogram charts. It accepts an

Input range and a Bin range. A bin range is a range of values that specifies the limits for each col-

umn of the histogram. If you omit the Bin range, Excel creates 10 equal-interval bins for you. The

size of each bin is determined by the following formula:

=(MAX(input_range)– MIN(input_range))/10

Output from the Histogram tool is shown in Figure 38.6. As an option, you can specify that the

resulting histogram be sorted by frequency of occurrence in each bin.

If you specify the Pareto (Sorted Histogram) option, the bin range must contain values and can’t

contain formulas. If formulas appear in the bin range, Excel doesn’t sort properly, and your work-

sheet displays error values. The Histogram tool doesn’t use formulas, so if you change any of the

input data, you need to repeat the histogram procedure to update the results.

Cross-Reference
For other ways of generating frequency distributions, see Chapters 13 and 35. n