Forum Discussion
Trendline
I demonstrated how __I__ am able to add a (linear) trendline to a histogram (aka Column) chart.
But I should have noted that even if that "works" for you (i.e. you can add a trendline now), often the trendline is not what you intended, except for XY Scatter charts.
Consider the following example:
The "y" equation for the linear trendline in the Scatter chart on top is correct, because that is, in fact, the formula in column B.
The "y" equation for the linear trendline in the Column chart on the bottom is incorrect. The reason is: regardless of the labels that we use in the x-axis (they might not even be numeric), the treadline assumes that the "x" values ("independent variable") are 1, 2, 3 etc.
So a trendline for a histogram (Column) chart is valid only if the labels for your histogram columns are 1, 2, 3 etc, by coincidence.
To demonstrate, if we change the "x" values to 1, 2, 3 etc, the result is:
JoeUser2004 Not sure what Excel version you are using, but as from 2016, Excel (both Mac and PC) contains a Histogram chart type that takes a single column of values from which the frequency of those values is determined and displayed in customizable bins/columns. And when you use this particular chart type you can NOT add a trendline, as it would be meaningless.