Time-date chart plotting

How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

N N
N N
N N
N N THIS
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2

Rather than
N N
N N
N N NOT THIS
N N
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Midjack said:
How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

Choose Chart type XY (Scatter) instead of Line. Line has only the
options of Category (which won't distribute the values properly) and
Time-scale (which, for some bizarre reason, Microsoft limits to whole
days only - no times available).

Time-scale can sometimes be useful as a sort of Interval scale for Line
and Area chart types, but because it only does integers, not fractions,
it's no good to you here. Only a proper interval/interval chart type
will do.

Also, make sure the X values are proper "date plus time" format all in
one cell. A date in one cell and a time in another won't work.

--
Del Cotter
NB Personal replies to this post will send email to ,
which goes to a spam folder-- please send your email to del3 instead.

Many thanks Del. That seems to work fine after a little tinkering with both
of the axes.

"Del Cotter" wrote:

On Fri, 7 Mar 2008, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Midjack said:
How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

Choose Chart type XY (Scatter) instead of Line. Line has only the
options of Category (which won't distribute the values properly) and
Time-scale (which, for some bizarre reason, Microsoft limits to whole
days only - no times available).

Time-scale can sometimes be useful as a sort of Interval scale for Line
and Area chart types, but because it only does integers, not fractions,
it's no good to you here. Only a proper interval/interval chart type
will do.

Also, make sure the X values are proper "date plus time" format all in
one cell. A date in one cell and a time in another won't work.

--
Del Cotter
NB Personal replies to this post will send email to ,
which goes to a spam folder-- please send your email to del3 instead.

"Del Cotter" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Mar 2008, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Midjack said:
How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

Choose Chart type XY (Scatter) instead of Line. Line has only the options
of Category (which won't distribute the values properly) and Time-scale
(which, for some bizarre reason, Microsoft limits to whole days only - no
times available).

Del -

It's still a category axis. I think the magic done under the covers simply
skips some categories in between to plot uneven intervals of whole numbers.
So we're still stuck with days only.

What you could do if you like the way the date axis is formatted (I know I
do), is to make a line chart with a hidden series (no markers or lines) to
control the axis, then add your real data as XY series, using real dates and
times for the X values. These somehow are allowed to display in between
categories and show times other than midnight on the days along the axis.
This combination Line-XY approach also helps to display data where the
series don't have points on the same days. Line chart series are tied to the
dates for the first series, but XY series are independent of each other.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______

Jon,
This is just what I need. I've had a go, but am failing miserably so far.
I've been looking at your pages for an example but no joy so far. If there is
a specific example on your site could you please point me at it.
Thanks

Too bad you deleted the post you were replying to.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"David" wrote in message
...
Jon,
This is just what I need. I've had a go, but am failing miserably so far.
I've been looking at your pages for an example but no joy so far. If there
is
a specific example on your site could you please point me at it.
Thanks

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Jon Peltier said:
"David" wrote
This is just what I need. I've had a go, but am failing miserably so
far. I've been looking at your pages for an example but no joy so far.
If there is a specific example on your site could you please point me
at it.

Too bad you deleted the post you were replying to.

Jon, this is the context:

On Sat, 8 Mar 2008, in microsoft.public.excel.charting,
Jon Peltier said:
"Del Cotter" wrote in message
Midjack said:
How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

Choose Chart type XY (Scatter) instead of Line. Line has only the options
of Category (which won't distribute the values properly) and Time-scale

What you could do if you like the way the date axis is formatted (I know I
do), is to make a line chart with a hidden series (no markers or lines) to
control the axis, then add your real data as XY series, using real dates and
times for the X values. These somehow are allowed to display in between
categories and show times other than midnight on the days along the axis.
This combination Line-XY approach also helps to display data where the
series don't have points on the same days. Line chart series are tied to the
dates for the first series, but XY series are independent of each other.

--
Del Cotter
NB Personal replies to this post will send email to ,
which goes to a spam folder-- please send your email to del3 instead.

You can try changing the axis to text format

"Midjack" wrote:

How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

N N
N N
N N
N N THIS
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2

Rather than
N N
N N
N N NOT THIS
N N
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2

Even better, use an XY chart. You need the full date and time values in
the cells containing the X values.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://peltiertech.com/


On 4/9/2010 9:39 PM, water wrote:
You can try changing the axis to text format

"Midjack" wrote:

How can I create a time-date graph such that the values are plotted at the
correct time positions within the date range rather than all on the date
vertical axis?

N N
N N
N N
N N THIS
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2

Rather than
N N
N N
N N NOT THIS
N N
N N
N N
Jan 1 Jan 2