We are going to explain how to add a Sparkline to Excel, as well as how to do it in Google Spreadsheet. These mini charts can help you to represent in a very visual way the results or parameters that you have in the rest of the rows or columns, so you can follow the evolution of this data.
This is something very easy to do, especially in Excel, where you have a specific option to help you in the process. In Google Drive spreadsheets you will have to do it by hand, but it is not going to be something too difficult to achieve.
How to add a sparkline in Excel
The first thing you need is to have a spreadsheet with some data. You will need to have the same type of data in the same row or column that can appear in the chart, and then select the cell where you want to insert the mini chart.
Once you have selected the cell where you want to add it, click on the Insert section (1) in the top menu. A series of specific options will now appear above the spreadsheet, and in them, you have to click on the option Mini-chart (2) to continue.
A new window will appear in which you have to indicate the type of miniplot you want to use. The most common is the line chart, but you can use any of the others that appear if you prefer.
A window will appear in which the location where you want to place the mini-graph will be set by default, which is the cell you had selected. Now, you have to select the range of data you want to use, by selecting the cells in Excel or directly typing the cell where the data starts and the cell where it ends. Then, press OK.
And that’s it. When you do this, in the selected cell will appear directly the graph in which you will be able to see the evolution of the data in the selected cells as a range. This chart only occupies the cell in which it is, but it is very visual and will give you interesting information at a glance.
How to add a sparkline with the formula
In Google Spreadsheets, the procedure is simpler. You simply have to use the Sparkline formula, which also works for Excel. You have to click on the cell where you want to put the chart and type the formula =SPARKLINE(X:Y). In this formula you have to change the X and Y, putting instead the start and end cell for the data range. When you press Enter, the chart will appear.
You can add secondary codes to the charts to give them some formatting, codes that go in pairs. For example, if you add “charttype”, “winloss”; you will be saying that it will be profit and loss, and you can add “color”, “00cc66”; “negcolor”, “cd0000”; to put green or red color for positive and negative values. And so on, you can explore these formulas.