2.1 Frequency tables

Before learning how to make a frequency tables and histograms in Excel, you first need to know what frequency distribution is, and why we need histograms.

The frequency of a value is the number of times that value appears in a data set. A frequency distribution table displays the pattern of frequencies of a variable in a tabular form. It gives the information of how many times each value of a variable occurs in a data set. A frequency distribution table is an effective way to present and organise the collected raw data so that all its features are summarised in a tabular form. The first step that a researcher or analyst must take with collected raw data is to organise and present the data in a way that is more meaningful, and easy to digest.

Frequency distribution tables are also called frequency tables, and in practice both terms are used interchangeably. In short, a frequency table gives you a snapshot of how your data is distributed and spread out.

A frequency distribution table has two columns: Column A and Column B. Column A presents the outcome of the values and Column B presents the frequency of the outcomes. We can understand this better with the example below.

Anna is an analyst, and she works Monday and Tuesday in a hospital. On Wednesday and Thursday, she works in a small accounting firm. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday she works in a bank.

Now you can display this data through a frequency distribution table, as shown in Figure 7.

This table gives you an idea of how many days Anna works in each different organisation.

In the next section, you will learn various types of frequency distribution table.

In the next section, you will learn about various types of frequency distribution table.