Two-way analysis allows you to analyze how the simultaneous change of two inputs affect an output.

See the article Sensitivity Analysis Overview for more information about how Sensitivity Explorer analyses work, in general.

Choose Inputs and Outputs

Start by selecting exactly two inputs and a single output from your workbook model.  If you have previously used this workbook with Sensitivity Explorer, your input and output may already be shown in the lists.  If they are not yet there, click the input or output “Add” button to add the cells.  (See the article Working with Inputs and Outputs for more information.)

By default, the first input you select will be the “X” input.  That is, its value will be associated with the x-axis of the heat map view, and with the columns of the table view.  Similarly, the second input selected will be the “Y” input.  You can reverse this by clicking the Flip-Axes button (to the right of the input list Add button.)

Run the Analysis

When you click the OK button, Sensitivity Explorer varies the two inputs over all possible combinations of the values you specified for them.  For each pair of values, Excel recalculates your spreadsheet and records the output value.

Analyze the Results

After the analysis is complete, a result window is displayed.  Two-way analysis results include two result views: Heat Map View, and Table View.    These are simply two ways of presenting the same underlying set of results.   The initial view displayed will depend on the menu item you chose from the ribbon when starting the analysis, but you can change the view by clicking the view buttons at the bottom of the window.

For more information about all the options in this window please see the article Working with Result Windows.

Heat Map View

The heat map view graphically displays the output’s value using a color map.  By default, the lowest output values appear in blue, while the highest are red.

• This graph can be customized, copied to the clipboard, or exported to Excel by clicking the Actions icon at the bottom of the window.
• Clicking the Inspector icon at the bottom of the window will open a panel to the right of the graph where you can select and focus-in on more detailed information about each point.

Table View

The table view shows all the input and output values in tabular format.  The table view shows all the input and output values in tabular format.  The values of the X-input are shown across the columns, while the values of the Y-input are shown in the rows.

• The table can be customized, copied to the clipboard, or exported to Excel by clicking the Actions icon at the bottom of the window.