What's the best way to represent the variance between two groups of dates? (Charting/Formula)

[hmmmidk220]

Hi!

So lets say we have two sets of dates when something is predicted to be delivered/finished. Each set has two columns: Date of delivery and order number. Assume each order number matches between the two sets, it's just that each set has a different delivery date.

If we wanted to see as a whole how 'off' we are between the two sets of dates, what's the best way to show that? What formula could be used? (some kind of % change?) What kind of chart would show it best?

Thanks!

 

[Eric W]

Maybe:

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M
1	Date	Order #		Date	Order #		Average variance		Order #	Difference		Difference	Count
2	1-Jan	1		1-Jan	1		0.8		1	0		-2	0
3	2-Jan	2		4-Jan	5				2	4		-1	1
4	3-Jan	3		6-Jan	2				3	0		0	2
5	4-Jan	4		3-Jan	3				4	1		1	1
6	5-Jan	5		5-Jan	4				5	-1		2	0
7												3	0
8										0.8	Average	4	1
9												5	0
10

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Sheet1​

Worksheet Formulas Cell Formula J8 =AVERAGE(J2:J6) <thead> </thead><tbody> </tbody>

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Array Formulas Cell Formula G2 {=(SUM(SUMIF(E:E,E2:E10,D:D))-SUM(SUMIF(B:B,E2:E10,A:A)))/COUNT(D:D)} <thead> </thead><tbody> </tbody> Entered with Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If entered correctly, Excel will surround with curly braces {}. Note: Do not try and enter the {} manually yourself

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The formula in G2 figures out the average difference in days between the dates in A and the dates in D, matching order number. It expects all order numbers to have a corresponding number in the other group, otherwise the result is meaningless. But there's a lot of details you need to consider. In this example, order 5 came early, which improves the average.

As far as a chart, you can organize your data in groups such as I:J and L:M. You can select the data in those groups and play with charts to see if anything works for you. About the best I saw was to select L1:M9 and choose a bar chart.