Summarising

and
Presenting Data

School of Computing and Engineering

University of West London
 Learning outcomes
Knowledge and skills that you should acquire in this lecture
and why they are useful for you:

1.Will know how to calculate frequency of data elements

2.Will know how to draw diagrams to represent summary
statistics (for example histogram)
3.Will be able to use summarising and presenting data to
help you to better understand it
4.Will be able to use Excel to do 1-3
 Summarising and Presenting
data
• Usually presented using tables and graphs
• Used for
– Exploring patterns in the data
– What values occur most often?
– Where are the data concentrated?
– How spread out are the data?
– Which simple quantities and when are they
appropriate representatives for the whole of the
data (e.g. the mean value)?
 Mean value of the data
Sum of the data

x
Mean = x n
Number of obs

n is the number of observations

x refers to the data

x denotes the mean of the data set x.

 Problem 1

In order to learn about these concepts we start with a problem which will
demonstrate all these concepts and demonstrate a way to use Excel to
solve the problem.

Town A has exactly 35 people and the shoe sizes for each of them are:
SA = { 42, 41, 44, 42, 44, 42, 43, 39, 44, 46, 45, 44, 43, 43, 43, 43, 42, 42,
43, 42, 44, 47, 41, 43, 41, 45, 45, 40, 46, 41, 43, 45, 43, 47, 47}.
Try to identify just one single number which would in your opinion best
represent this set.
Approach to solve the problem
A) By hand: We will first solve this problem
manually without any help of a computer
B) Using computer: Then we will use a software
package, in this case MS Excel
 Problem 1 – solving manually
1. First let us summarise the data

Data = 42, 41, 44, 42, 44, 42, 43, 39, 44, 46, 45, 44, 43, 43, 43, 43, 42, 42,
43, 42, 44, 47, 41, 43, 41, 45, 45, 40, 46, 41, 43, 45, 43, 47, 47

Shoe No of appearances
size (frequency)
39 1 2. Let us present this as a bar chart
40 1 (histogram)
41 4
42 6
43 9
44 5
45 4
46 2 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
47 3
 Find a good, single-number
representative of this data

From the graph we can see that it is largely symmetric

In that case the Mean should be a good representative

39x1 + 40x1 + 41x4 + 42x6 + 43x9 + 44x5 + 45x4 + 46x2 + 47x3

Mean =
1+1+4+6+9+5+4+2+3
1515
=
35

= 43.3

What is this measure good for? For example we can compare the size of the
foot between two towns – see Problem 2.
 Problem 1 – use Excel
1. Import the data into an Excel spreadsheet
2. Identify max and min by sorting it
3. Defy bin for the histogram
4. Use Excel: Data – Data Analysis to draw the
histogram
5. Analyse the graph: for example is it symmetric?
6. Identify the one good representative value!

See video: Problem 1 – using Excel

 Presenting data in tables
• Widely used method of presentation
• Easy to produce and manipulate in
spreadsheets.
• Usually a table of counts or frequencies.
• Proportions or relative frequencies can
also be included.
 Exploring relationships in
data
• Cross tabulations summarise data on two
variables at the same time.

• This allows you to explore any relationship

between the tabulated variables.

• You need to decide in advance which is

the explanatory variable and which is the
response variable.
 Graphical Presentations
• Good for summarising and drawing
attention to a particular feature of the data
set.
• Useful for comparing data sets.
• Often not as detailed as a tabular
summary.
• Rely on visual impressions so easily
manipulated and open to abuse.
 Pie charts
• Good points
– Comparing relative sizes of elements of a total.
– Show clearly when one element is bigger or smaller
than another.

• Bad points
– Impossible to calculate numbers or % associated with
each category from the graph.
– Not suitable if there are too many categories.
– Easily distorted
 Which chart has equal-sized
sectors?
Using 2D pie charts, it’s clear that in
fact the left-hand chart has equal-
sized sectors
D D
25% 20%

C A C A
25% 25% 30% 30%

B B
25% 20%
 Which chart has equal-sized
sectors?
Using 3D pie charts, it looks as though
the right-hand chart has equal-sized
sectors

D D
C 25% A C 20% A
25% B 25% 30% B 30%
25% 20%
 Too much information
Student perception of skills required in
business

• Hard to match 4%
4% 10%
Planning
Written
names to sectors 5%
5%
8% Spelling
Speaking

• Hard to see 7%
3% Researching
Presentation
5% Mathematical
what’s going on Organisational
Time management
11% 8%
Study skills
Computing
2% 7% Listening
5% Interviewing
5%
11% Questioning
Patience
Thinking
 Confusing 3D Graphs
30

25

20

Price (£)
15

1990 10

1992

1994 5

1996

1998
Is the price of the object in 2000 0
higher or lower than it was in

2000
1990? Is this easy to see from the
graph?
 Recap
• Tables and graphs are used to summarise the main
features of the data.

• Graphs and Tables should be used to support your

discussions and interpretations.

• A good graphical presentation is worth a thousand

words!

• Always maintain graphical integrity.