Can I convert a list of names directly into a pie chart in Excel?

Question

I've asked a group of 50 students who their favourite teacher was. The survey has exported the data and I've sorted it, so the list is now something like:

Abrams

Abrams

Butler

Cromwell

Cromwell

Cromwell

Edison

Foster

Foster

Foster

Foster

Foster

Walters

...in Excel, can I make it create a pie chart that takes these values and creates a proportional pie cart by the weight of each name against the total number of entries? I could do all this manually, by adding the duplicates and doing the math and manually doing, well, all that work, but I was hoping there'd be an automatic way to have Excel do the consolidating-and-math bit. There are a lot of things in this survey like the above list, so it's be great to be able to repeat this for a number of questions and answers.

Solution

You'll be wanting a Pivot Chart. Here's the steps for Excel 2010:

1. Ensure all your data is in one column and has a header row.
   
2. Select said column and in the Ribbon go to "Insert" -> "PivotChart"
   
3. If you selected your data already, the "Create PivotTable with PivotChart" box should already be populated with the correct range of cells.
   
4. Set up your PivotTable. Assuming your header is called "Names", you'll need to add that field to both "Axis Fields" and "Values"
   
5. You should have a bar chart at this point
   
6. On the Ribbon, click on "Change Chart Type".
   
7. Select what you want and you should have a pie chart ready to go.
   

Comments

[Sun]

+1 thanks for including sample data. It makes helping you out much easier when we can prove/solve it on our own computers.

[JeanSibelius]

Thanks for this, but it doesn't seem to work past your point 4. I can select the category name in PivotChart Fields, and I can select the category in AXIS, but there's nothing in the Sigma Values box (and no way to add anything). All I see is a column on the left of the sheet that says Row Labels, and a text list underneath it. A screenshot here: imgur.com/qyb82vM [Also -- I'm in Excel 2013, if it changes things]

[JeanSibelius]

Also, it's duplicating some entries, which confuses me. I've cut and pasted to make sure all the cells are identical (no extra spaces, etc.).

[kazoni]

Drag "Teachers" into your Sigma Values as well. I think when the values pull into the chart, the duplicate name issue will resolve itself.

[JeanSibelius]

That did it! Doesn't always resolve the duplicate values -- I sometimes need to re-cut and re-paste the fields for some reason -- but that solved the graphing problem.