Making Single-Subject Graphs with Spreadsheet Programs

In order to create a graph with broken graph lines, such as for a single subject A-B research design, you must stagger the baseline data and intervention data in two separate columns on your Excel spreadsheet before creating the graph.

The following directions are for Excel in Office 2013:

Screen capture of a Excel spreadsheet for a single-subject graph that includes data points and graphs with the following information to its left. Begin by entering your first baseline data point in cell A1, [an arrow pointing to cell A1] then continue entering your baseline data points moving down, staying column A. If you have 3 baseline data points, then they will be in cells A1, A2, and A3. To create a second graph line, start in a next column, B, at cell 4. [an arrow pointing to cell B4] With 5 data points you would enter your data in cells B4, B5, B6, B7, and B7. [line break] Once the data are entered, highlight the data and select Line [in bold italic] [an arrow pointing to the Line option sub menu in the Insert tab of the top menu] from the Insert [in bold italic] [an arrow pointing to the Insert tab of the top menu] tab. Select the option that shows the data points. [an arrow pointing to a selection from the Line option sub menu] [line break] A single-subject graph will appear. You can copy it and paste it into other documents. You can remove [an arrow pointing to the legends at the bottom of the graph] the series labels by clicking on them and pressing the delete key on the keyboard.

The following directions are for Google Sheets:

Screen capture of a Google sheet for a single-subject graph that includes data points and graphs with the following information to its left. Begin by entering your first baseline data point in cell A1, [an arrow pointing to cell A1] then continue entering your baseline data points moving down, staying column A. If you have 3 baseline data points, then they will be in cells A1, A2, and A3. To create a second graph line, start in a next column, B, at cell 4. [an arrow pointing to cell B4] With 5 data points you would enter your data in cells B4, B5, B6, B7, and B7. [line break] Once the data are entered, highlight the data and select Chart [in bold italic] [an arrow pointing to the Chart option in a drop down menu in the Insert tab of the top menu] from the Insert [in bold italic] [an arrow pointing to the Insert tab of the top menu] tab. By default, a bar graph may appear and a Chart editor [in bold] [an arrow pointing to the Chart editor icon on the sheet] (click on the bar chart if the Chart editor [in bold] does not immediately appear). [line break] On the Chart editor, [in bold] select the icon for Line chart [in bold]. [an arrow pointing to the Line chart in the Chart editor drop down menu selection]

Del Siegle, Ph.D.

updated 6.19.2019