Creating charts

Although some statistical procedures can create charts, you can also use the Chart Builder (accessible via the Visualize menu) to create charts.

For example, you can create a chart that shows the relationship between wireless telephone service and PDA (personal digital assistant) ownership.

Prior to launching the Chart Builder, it is necessary to first change some of the variable's measure values from Scale to Nominal.

  1. Click the Variables tab for the active dataset.
  2. Locate the wireless variable and change its Measure value from Scale to Nominal.
  3. Locate the ownpda variable and change its Measure value from Scale to Nominal.
    Figure 1. Variables tab
    Variables tab
  4. From the menus choose:

    Visualize > Chart Builder...

    Figure 2. Chart Builder dialog
    Chart Builder dialog
  5. Select the Bar chart icon from the Chart Type gallery.
  6. Select wireless as the Category variable.
  7. Select ownpda as the Split by variable and ensure that Clustered is selected as the Split type setting.
  8. Click the Display data label in chart control to replace the chart data values with label values.
  9. Click Create to create the chart.
Figure 3. Bar chart displayed in the Workbook tab
Bar chart displayed in Workbook tab

The bar chart displays in the Workbook tab. The chart shows that people with wireless phone service are far more likely to have PDAs than people without wireless service.

You can copy and paste your results into other applications. Those topics will be covered later.