[Excel] How to make a step chart

A step chart shows change over time as a succession of sudden, non-continuous changes.

A step chart in Excel.

Design notes

• Excel doesn’t offer a step change as a connection option for a line chart, so error bars need to be used instead.
• The horizontal lines uses x-axis error bars, while the vertical lines use y-axis error bars.
• Since each step is composed of two lines, we can apply different properties for each of them.

Video

Notes

• 00:10: the formula for the new column [X] calculates the difference between the current date and the previous date.
• 00:20: the formula for the new column [Y] calculates the difference between the current price and the previous price.
• 01:00: to create the horizontal lines, only one direction of the error bars is necessary, and the cap is removed.
• 01:15: the vertical line uses the plus direction of the y-axis error bars.
• 02:05: set the scale for the x-axis to start at the minimum date (defined as a number); if you don’t know, use the MIN() function to get it and use the returned value.