The key to creating a waterfall chart in Excel is understanding the choice of data structures and chart types. First, data preparation requires adding auxiliary columns, including growth/descent columns and connection line columns; second, if you use Office 365 and above, you can directly insert the built-in waterfall chart. After selecting the data area, generate and fine-tune the format through "Insert" > "Waterfall Chart"; if you use the old version, you need to manually implement it by stacking column charts, set hidden columns without filling and adjust the colors and labels. The two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, but the core lies in correctly building the data structure and following the steps to complete it.
Creating a waterfall chart is actually not difficult in Excel. The key is to understand the choice of data structures and chart types. The waterfall chart can clearly display the process of increasing or decreasing the value, and is often used in financial analysis, budget comparison and other scenarios.

Data preparation is key
Waterfall charts rely on a specific data structure: In addition to the raw data, auxiliary columns are needed to help the chart display correctly.
For example, if you want to show how a company's quarterly profit changes, your original data might be a column of quarterly names and a column of profit values. But in order to make a waterfall diagram, you need to add two columns:

- Growth/Decrease column : used to determine whether the current term is increasing or decreasing.
- Connection line column : Used to hide the blanks between the pillars and keep visually continuous.
The operation steps are as follows:
- Step 1: List all changes (such as income, expenses) and final results.
- Step 2: Insert the auxiliary column next to it and fill in the positive or negative value according to the direction of change.
- Step 3: Use 0 or blank to fill the "hidden column" in the middle to ensure that there is a connection effect between the bar charts.
After this setting, you can use these columns to generate a chart.

Use Excel's built-in waterfall diagram feature (suitable for Office 365 and later)
If you are using a newer version of Excel (such as Office 365), you can use the built-in waterfall template directly.
How to operate:
- Select your data area (including the title row).
- Click Insert > Waterfall Chart in the menu bar or find it from the recommended chart.
- Excel automatically recognizes data trends and generates charts, you just need to fine-tune the colors and labels.
The advantage of this method is that it saves time and effort, and the disadvantage is that it is incompatible with older versions of Excel.
Create a waterfall chart manually (for all Excel versions)
If your Excel does not have a waterfall chart option, it can also be done manually by stacking column charts.
Specific practices:
- Insert the auxiliary column data that was prepared before into the chart.
- Insert a stacked column chart.
- Set the "Hidden Column" section to be unfilled so that it is invisible.
- Set colors (such as green and red) for the growth and decline parts respectively.
- Add data labels to make the changing values of each column clearly visible.
This step is a little more complicated, but as long as you adjust the format step by step, you can achieve professional results.
Basically that's it. The key is to understand the role of auxiliary columns and choose the right chart tool. Although it looks a bit tangible, after a few actual operations, you will find that it is not complicated, it is just easy to ignore the details.
The above is the detailed content of how to make a waterfall chart in excel. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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