I am trying to get a variable-base column bar graph in Excel. Basically, with reference to the figure below, I have a number of periods. Each period can range from 1 to 5 months. So the various periods do not have the same length. Each period, however, has only one value associated with it that is representative of the entire period.
What I wish to achieve can be seen in the first figure (A), where two characteristics that the graph must have are also highlighted, namely, to consist of columns of varying width, as well as height, and to have the final month of the period placed in the center of the column and not at the bottom right.
I have tried several ways to get this graph with Excel, but all I have been able to get is visible in the second figure (B). Basically, I had to create a second, auxiliary, table by hand from the first, and then generate a normal column chart.
Clearly the result is different from what I wanted, although I came close.
Do you think it is possible, with Excel, to get exactly the chart I need without having to use a second table? Or, alternatively, do you think there are other programs, e.g., Holoviews (Python) to get the expected result?
Related
Trying to recreate this first graph in excel using the data below it.
Solved this by making the times regular integers, then calculating the start to end difference for each date, widening the data to split the differences among three categories. I then highlighted only the dates and start times, pressed control, and highlighted the 3 columns with the differences.
I selected stacked bar chart, which looked like this by default.
Lastly, I selected the (blue) start time bars and chose no fill as the color. After deleting this series from the legend, the result adequately matched the requirements.
I have 2 sets of actual data that need to be stacked. At the current month I want to show 2 sets of projected data also stacked but the transition is currently gradual as if the empty cells are treated as zeroes. I want a vertical separation between the actual and projected.
I'm using Excel (2013). I've tried:
- The Hidden and Empty cells setting... but it locked on Zero (other options greyed out)
- Using #N/A
- Changing ranges (this works when the gap is at the end but not for the Projected values.
Separate the data with the zero into two series ie either side of the zero , then plot the two series ie left part and right part.
Another way would be to have a second chart, transarent except for the second part of the data series sitting on top...
Used to do that with forecasting based on previous values, what looked like one line actually had two charts overlaid one on the other.
So, based on the comment built this:
So, you can now follow and complete the detail you need.
My problem is as follows:
The user inputs two numbers between 2 and 25, these numbers are used to create a grid. Every point on the grid has (x,y) coordinates. Based on the amount of points the user chose, my excel sheet is filled up with up to 25x25 (x,y) coordinates.
Example: A 6x7 grid is chosen by the user, the table is filled with 42 (x,y) coordinates and all other values in the table are set to "".
Now I want to use a scatterplot with lines connecting each array to plot the data.
Problem 1: If I only select the 6x7 part of the table that has values in it and create the scatterplot the result is correct. Until the user specifies a different grid, for example 8x9, then the graph is obviously missing two rows and two columns of input data.
Problem 2: If I select the entire 25x25 part of the table, including all the "" values, the graph axes get messed up. The y-axis works properly, but the x-axis shows sequential values (0-7) instead of the x-coordinates.
Problem 3: If I replace all the "" values in the table to 0 or NaN and plot the entire table the axes are correct, but the lines between the scatter data get messed up.
Question:
Is there a way to automatically change the input data for the plot, or is there a way to correctly display the values on the x-axis if I select all the data?
Not sure this will work in your case, but it's worth a try, especially since no one's addressed your post in 3+ hours. I've had success with this approach: 1) charting the largest data set, 2) copying the resulting chart, and 3) trimming the data it draws from to produce all smaller data sets.
To get this to work takes a lot of thought in laying out that largest data set so that all the other plots follow as needed. To illustrate, I've somewhat mimicked your data and in the animated gif I show largest data set, plus 2 others produced by copying it. Then I demonstrate how to make the second one, including the rescaling required to make all plots scaled equally. Notice that I've arranged things so that only one set of x-values feeds all the series. If you can do this, it makes working with the Excel's interface much easier.
After wrestling with it all night I came to the following solution:
Instead of setting all the empty cells to "" or zero the cells should be be set to #N/A (not available). The graph properly ignores the #N/A cells exactly like I want it to and updates when values are entered into them.
I have a table (came from a pivot table) where I have formatted the column 4 cells to show 1 billion as 1. But when I select the table and insert a chart, I am getting my units in millions. So the 14.8 billion number for Mexico is showing up as 14,800 on the chart. Why might this be happening and how can I fix this? This is also making all my other bars negligibly small. Note that the first three columns are not in billions and are totally different things. Some are percentages, some are other small numbers.
Table:
Chart:
You need a secondary horizontal axis and some formatting on the Axes.
In Excel 2013
First change the Chart Type to Combo and select Clustered Bar for both sets of data, then Check
Secondary Axis for the Percentage Series.
Then set up the axis limits so they match, e.g.
Percentage: min -.5 max 2
Billions: min -5e9 max 20e9
Then set the percentage format on the source data to a custom Number format of "";(0)%;0%
Then set the Billions format as 0,,,;"";0
You will get something like this:
EDIT
Now that we have the general principles, we can apply them to your specific data.
I will also switch to Excel 2010 do show the different menus.
The data selection looks like this
Select the non-Billion series (plural!) and check the secondary axis
If the larger data is always positive then you can use custom formatting to clean up the axis
Align the primary and secondary axes so that the grid lines match on both
The end result is clean and readable.
Mixing percentages and numbers for the smaller numbers is not handled by this but I would suggest that that would be confusing anyway?
The simplest way to fix this might be to plot cells containing the billions values divided by 10^9 rather than to plot the billions themselves, though via a secondary axis may be possible.
Using Excel 2007. For the purple bars, the example on the left uses ColumnE values, on the right ColumnF values. E1 contains =F1/10^9 and F1 contains =14800000000:
It appears that there are 3 questions here: 1) "Why might this be happening", 2) "how can I fix this", and 3) something like "how can I plot data which lie on two widely differing ranges, and make them all reasonably visible anyway", even if there was no explicit question on this.
There are several ways to solve issue #2 about the units (e.g., billions) and numbers (e.g., 14.8 vs. 14,800.0) shown in the axis, each one with its own pros and cons:
Use Format Axis -> Axis Options -> Display units.
This might be the answer to your issue #1 as well, you might have the following selection: Display units -> Millions, and unchecked Show display units... Otherwise, I wouldn't know why you chart shows what it shows.
Use faked tick marks, as indicated in the (excellent) site of Jon Peltier
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ArbitraryAxis.html
It gives detailed instructions on how to create tick marks on an axis with arbitrary labels (which may be text, numbers, etc.), which is more generic than what the OP wants here. In this particular case, the labels will be the desired numbers.
Create new cells containing data that would be plotted exactly the way you want.
As for your issue #3, I guess the only option is to have a Secondary Axis (see the answer by pnuts).
Thus, to come up with the best final chart for you might use a combination of one of the options I gave here and a secondary axis.
I thought over a lot for this case, I need to plot a series as percentage value of another series.
e.g, series A is the capacity and B is the usage. I want a percentage plot of B on A. Initially I did this by creating a 100% stack chart with series B vs (A-B). I computed (A-B) on a separate column and used that as a series for this purpose. So far so good.
But now I want to generate multiple charts like this (say 12 different graphs for 12 months' usage). I have 12 columns of usage data and one column of fixed capacity data.
Is there a way to auto-generate this chart without having to create 12 intermediate columns with formula. It seems logical that Excel should have a chart type for representing A on B, just as they have one for A,B on A+B.
Sorry if I am too lengthy or confusing in my description. I did my best here to explain.
Actually I am trying to do the same thing I figured it out. If you have Excel 2007 (not sure if this feature is available in older versions). Select all 3 colums, 1 with the names of your variables, total count, and subtotal of what you are counting. Select column chart. Once the chart is created, right click to format the data series. Under series options there is a slidebar for series overlap, change this value to 100% and wahla, the the 2nd series becomes a percent of the total. Hope this helps!
Excel has common chart types, but even Microsoft doesn't have the resources to provide every possible combination of charting styles. And users are confused enough with the currently available styles.
Excel charts plot the data that they are given. If you need to plot A as a percentage of B, you will need to compute the percentage in a range, and plot this range.
The way I would do this is not to modify the ranges on the worksheet at all.
Write a new function that creates the modified range data you need so that you can return this and use it inside of ApplyTemplate method when creating the chart. The only downside to this is you would need to run a macro/vsto ribbon button to update the chart. as opposed to getting that behaviour for free with a worksheet bound approach.