Including error bars in a chart

[Monique]

Can anyone recommend some free software to me where you can make charts that include an error bar? OpenOffice Calc is not able to do that (I don't have access to Excel).

So as an example: I have a triplicate measurement of 77, 75 and 76. I want the graph to show 75 as the mean and then an error bar of +/- 1.

 

[tmc]

If I understand this right, any spreadsheet program should do.
Enter your data, calculate the average, find the value furthest from it (max-avg / min-avg), and use that as the error. Then plot that as an error bar.

There probably is a program that does this for you, but I don't know any.

 

[Monique]

But how do I include that as an error bar in a graph, the software I tried is not able to do a proper job.

For instance: I have four replicates and for each replicate I have 5 types of information. For each type of information I want to have a bar that has its own error bar.

big small round square pointy
1   10    55     23       6
3   15    54     22       5
2   2     55     24       8
2   12    60     20       5

2   9.8  56     22.25  6       average
.71 4.8  2.35   1.48   1.22    stdev

 

[Bystander]

You might try http://students.washington.edu/bellc/grapher/index.php . I think it's the same "Grapher" I ran into 20 years ago --- might not be, and I've no idea what features it still has, has added, or anything else. Caveat emptor, but at the price, ...

 

[Monique]

I tried it out. It's for graphing formulas, it doesn't have a spreadsheet. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[tmc]

If you already have your data points and their respective error bars, the graphing program I use the most is called "Origin".

Excel also does error bars.

 

[Monique]

Hm, yeah, €900 is a little too much money for error bars
I'll find a computer with Excel and plug in the data there.

 

[Gary Ruben]

...In case someone still reads this thread

A few answers:

Gnuplot:
http://www.gnuplot.info/

R:
http://cran.r-project.org/

Maybe hippodraw
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/ek/hippodraw/index.html

--
G.