2.2.2 Ungrouped frequency distribution tables

When you are summarising small amounts of data, then it is better to organise and represent it in an ungrouped frequency distribution table. This is a type of distribution that shows how many times each individual value occurs in a data set.

For example, say you are interested to know how many plants people have in their homes. A survey gives the following figures as number of plants that 18 different people have in their homes:

Number of plants = 1, 5, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3

To answer the question, first you need to see the frequency of each value in the data. Value 1 occur 4 times, so you can describe it as four people having one plant. Then, you do the same for the rest of the values, so: three people have two plants, six people have three plants, two people have four plants, and three people have five plants.

In the following activity, you will learn how to make ungrouped frequency tables in Excel.

Activity 2: How to make an ungrouped frequency table in Excel and a Bar chart

Allow approximately 55 minutes to complete this activity

In this activity, you will learn how to make an ungrouped frequency table in Excel, by following the instructions that are given below. Once you have produced the ungrouped frequency table in Excel, you may need to compare it with our final output by clicking ‘Reveal discussion’. This will help you to see whether you have produced the accurate ungrouped frequency table or not.

Open the Excel file JC Electrics (template). Select the worksheet named ‘Ungrouped frequency table’. This sheet contains only the quarterly data of numbers of generators sold from the raw data in worksheet ‘JC Electrics 1’.
Label Column B using the variable name (such as ‘Generators’) and label Column C ‘Frequency’.
Find the minimum and maximum value in the data. In this example =MAX(A5:A28), which is 15, and =MIN(A5:A28), which is 7.
Calculate the range: (MAX – MIN), so, which is 8.
Arrange the values in Column A from Smallest to Largest order. Select the values (A5:A28) in Column A, click Data in the toolbar and then click Sort, select Continue with current selection and press Enter. See below Figure 8, which shows how your information should be displayed.

Figure 8 Arranging the data from ascending to descending order

To count the number of quarters in which 7 units of Generators were sold, you need to calculate the frequency in Column C. Type =COUNTIF (Range, value). For example, =COUNTIF (A5:A28,7). This calculation will return a value of 4, therefore there are 4 quarters when only 7 units of generators were sold.
In Column B insert the different values of units sold such as: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 as they appear in Column A (see Figure 8).
To continue calculating the frequency in Column C, the formula in cell C5 can now be adjusted to =COUNTIF($A$5:$A$28, B5). This is the same formula as above; however, this is now presented in a format that will allow you to copy the formula up to Cell C13. As noted previously (see Table 4), to lock a cell or a group of cells you can use function F4. In your formula, this will show the $ in front of the rows or columns you prefer to keep locked in your calculations.
The copied formula in Cell C13, should be =COUNTIF($A$5:$A$28, B13). In column C, you will now have the calculated frequencies for all units sold.

Figure 9 Calculating the frequency of ungroup data

Check your answers in the Excel file: JC Electrics (solved).
Optional: As further practice, you can now use the data for the other two products from JC Electrics 1 (Electric motors and Transformers) to identify the frequency of their products sold.
You can check your answers in for solved files: JC Electrics (solved) Electric motors and JC Electrics (solved) Transformers.

Discussion

Figure 10 Ungrouped frequency table

Producing the correct ungrouped frequency table provides you with information about the frequency of Generators sold with a particular value for the units sold. For example, 7 Generators are sold during 4 quarters, 8 Generators are sold during 2 quarters, 9 generators are sold during 5 quarters and so on...

As is mentioned above, ungrouped frequency tables are useful when you have a small set of data, and you want to easily observe the frequency of each value in the data set. However, if you have a large data set then a grouped frequency distribution table is the best option. You will learn about these in the next section.

OpenLearn - Data analysis: visualisations in Excel
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