# How do I graph a quadratic equation in Excel?

Jan 28, 2015

I would start by choosing the first column of the spreadsheet for the values of $x$ and the second for the correspondent calculated values of your quadratic.

Next I would select the two columns (highlighting them) and choose "chart" from the menu "insert".

To get:

You can also use the icon:

to select the graphing option.

The right graph to use is the "xy scatter". This is represented by the following icon (in the chart window):

You can now choose to plot only the points or lines and points.
I've chosen points and smoothed lines from the boxes on the right of the chart window:

In the above Picture you can see the graph and the two columns for $x$ and for the quadratic (in this case I've chosen: ${x}^{2} + 2 x - 4$). In the formula bar (see the red arrow) you can see the form of the quadratic (accepted by Excel) and the corresponding calculated value.

Note:
My version of Excel is in Portuguese but in English doesn’t change a lot.
If you want to plot a quadratic with Excel you have to choose your $x$ values carefully to try to include interesting points, such as, the vertex and the intercepts.

Hope it helps