Making your first chart

By the end of this lesson you can build a bar chart from the market stall data in Google Sheets.

Why it matters

Turning a question into a clear chart in a few minutes is a skill people notice at work. Today you make your first one, from start to finish.

The idea in plain words

A chart needs a small, tidy table to draw from: one column for the labels, one for the numbers. Think of it like cooking: you chop and measure first (the summary table), then you cook (the chart).

Amara's raw table has 60 rows, one per sale. A chart of "sales per day" needs just 6 rows: one per day. So first you summarise, then you draw.

Summary table: a small table that counts or adds up the raw data by group, such as sales per day. Charts are usually drawn from summary tables.

Summarise, select, insert, tidy up.

Two names to know: Google Sheets calls a chart with standing bars a Column chart, and one with lying-down bars a Bar chart. Both are bar charts in everyday language.

See it done

Data: Amara's tab, market-stall-week.csv (synthetic). Remove any filter first. If you still have the results from lesson 3.5 in columns J and K, delete them first.

Goal: a column chart of the number of sales per day.

Part 1: the summary table.

1. In J1 type day. In K1 type sales.
2. In J2 to J7 type the six days: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat.
3. In K2 type =COUNTIF(C:C,"Mon"). In K3 =COUNTIF(C:C,"Tue"), and so on down to K7 for "Sat".
4. Check: the answers are 10, 9, 8, 11, 12, 10, and they add up to 60.

Part 2: the chart.

5. Select J1 to K7 (click J1, hold the mouse button, drag to K7).
6. Click Insert, then Chart. Sheets draws a chart and opens the chart editor on the right.
7. In the editor, on the Setup tab, find Chart type and choose Column chart (if Sheets picked something else).
8. Click the Customize tab (Google spells it with a z), then Chart & axis titles. Make sure Chart title is chosen, and type Amara's sales per day, 2 to 7 March 2026 as the title text.
9. Close the chart editor with the X at its top right. Your chart sits on the sheet. You can drag it to move it.

Your chart will look like this one. Colours and fonts may differ, but the bar heights must be the same: 10, 9, 8, 11, 12, 10.

Drawn by the course's chart script from the same data. Your Sheets chart should show the same heights.

Your turn, with help

Make a column chart of how Amara's customers paid: Cash, Transfer and Card.

Hint: make a new summary table in two free columns, such as M and N: payment and sales, then the three methods with =COUNTIF(H:H,"Cash") and so on. Select it, then Insert, Chart.

Show the answer

Your table: Cash 28, Transfer 20, Card 12. The chart has three bars, with Cash the tallest. A good title: "How Amara's customers paid, 2 to 7 March 2026".

Your turn, alone

1. In Lucía's tab, make a summary table and column chart of how many pupils use each travel_mode (both classes). Give it a clear title.
2. What is the tallest bar, and its value?
3. Change your Lucía chart to a Bar chart (lying-down bars) in Setup, Chart type. Does the information change?
4. Why should you type the title yourself, instead of keeping the one Sheets suggests?

Check your answers

1. Table: Walk 4, Bus 14, Bicycle 4, Car 8 (in any order). Title, for example: "How Lucía's pupils get to school, March 2026".
2. Bus, 14 pupils.
3. No. The bars lie down instead of standing up, but the values are the same.
4. Sheets often uses the column name, such as "sales". Your title should say exactly what the chart shows, who it is about and when.

Watch out

• Charting the raw table. Selecting all 60 rows and inserting a chart gives a mess. Summarise first.
• Forgetting the names row. Include J1 and K1 when you select. Sheets uses them as labels.
• Typos in the days. If you type Thur instead of Thu, COUNTIF finds 0 and the bar disappears. Check your total is 60.

Say it back

1. Why make a summary table first?
2. Which menu inserts a chart?
3. In Google Sheets, what is the difference between a Column chart and a Bar chart?

Show the answers

1. A chart needs one label and one number per group; the raw table has one row per sale.
2. Insert, then Chart.
3. Column chart bars stand up; Bar chart bars lie down.

What is next

You can make a bar chart. But Sheets also offers line charts, pie charts and more. Which one should you pick? One simple question decides it. Next lesson.