Software tools that aid in the collection, organization, and analysis of animal health data are increasingly accessible to the veterinary practitioner. Spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel can store large amounts of data, and can perform a variety of tasks to evaluate that data. In order to make evidence-based treatment, management, and production decisions, an accurate method of data collection and organization must be established. Spreadsheet software allows the user to collect, transform, describe, and display data in ways that are useful for analysis and communication of results. The objective of this article is to describe basic techniques for collection, organization, and analysis of common types of data used in livestock production systems.
Graphs and charts are useful tools to the veterinary practitioner for displaying data, identifying patterns, and communicating analysis results. Microsoft Excel has many graphing capabilities, two of which are bar graphs and scatter plots. Bar graphs are useful for displaying categorical data (i.e. nominal or ordinal data) whereas scatter plots are useful for displaying continuous data. The objective of this article is to describe the process of creating bar graphs and scatter plots of animal health data in Microsoft Excel. systems.
Pivot tables are powerful tools used to create comparisons, summaries, and stratifications of data. Pivot tables offer the user a multitude of sorting and filtering capabilities that would be cumbersome or confusing by other means. The =VLOOKUP function allows users to find data in different locations (e.g. other columns with the same spreadsheet or columns in separate spreadsheets) and merge it with existing data. The objective of this article is to describe the use of a pivot table and the =VLOOKUP formula when analyzing animal health data in Microsoft Excel.
Video Resources
Microsoft Excel for the Veterinary Practitioner Series
Getting Started in Microsoft Excel & Basic Spreadsheet Terminology
