How to create a trendline in Excel
By
SpreadCheaters
You can watch a video tutorial here.
Suppose you have 2 sets of data for used cars. One is the number of kilometers driven and the second is the selling price. To see the relationship between these variables, you create a scatter plot. To better visualize the relationship between the kilometers driven and the selling price, you want to add a trendline. As the dataset is a simple one, you can add a linear trendline.
Charts are a great way to visualize data and perform data analysis. Excel has several options when it comes to creating and formatting charts. In a scatter plot, the trendline is used to approximate the relationship between the data points. In Excel, there are 6 types of trendlines:
1. Exponential: this line is mostly used when the change in the dataset is exponential
2. Linear: this is the line of best fit for datasets that are linear in nature
3. Logarithmic: this is a curved line of best fit for data that increases or decreases and then remains constant
4. Polynomial: this is a curved line of best fit used for data that changes rapidly
5. Power: this trendline is for datasets that increase at a particular rate
6. Moving average: this trendline is used when the values in the dataset increase or decrease rapidly
Step 1 – Open the Chart Elements quick menu
– Select the chart
– Click on the plus sign (+) that appears at the top right corner of the chart
Step 2 – Select the Linear option
– From the Trendline menu, click Linear
OR
Go to Chart Design > Add Chart Element > Trendline > Linear
Step 3 – Format the trendline
– Select the trendline and right-click to open the context menu
– Use the Format Trendline pane to format the line as desired
