This is commonly used in statistics when the data is from a sample that makes up a larger population. Margin of error is the “uncertainty” of the data point.Margin of Error & Standard Deviationīefore you can learn how to add error bars in Excel, it’s important to understand what both margin of error and standard deviation are. Basically, anytime you want to include high and low points alongside individual data points, error bars can help.Įrror bars are available in Excel for area, bar, column, line, scatter, and bubble charts. However, you can use error bars for a variety of purposes.