Topic 4: B – Creating Bar Charts and Pie Charts

Published: January 20th, 2015

Category: Learning Statistical Software, SPSS Info and Tutorials

CO-7: Use statistical software to analyze public health data.

Video (3:57)

The following video illustrates exploratory data analysis for one categorical variable by creating bar charts and pie charts using GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER. The following files are associated with this video.

  • Menus and Steps Used:
    • Double-click on the SPSS dataset (STEP3) to open SPSS with that data loaded
    • For Bar Charts – Go to GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER
      • Bar Chart is the default but if it is not selected, choose it from the lower left menu
      • Double-Click or drag the first selection into the graph preview area
      • Drag a categorical variable onto the x-axis
      • Using the Element Properties, you can decide whether to display frequencies or percentages on the y-axis, click Apply to save any changes
      • Click OK
    • For Pie Charts – Go to GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER
      • Select Pie/Polar from the lower left menu
      • Double-Click or drag the pie chart into the graph preview area
      • Drag a categorical variable into the box (if you recently created a graph, it will keep your variable, you can reset using the reset button)
      • Using the Element Properties, you can decide whether to use frequencies or percentages, click Apply to save any changes
      • Click OK
    • Save SPSS output by going to yhe output and File – Save or by closing SPSS and following the prompts.

This document is linked from our main SPSS page under Software.