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I have the following data:

Date      Name            Value

1/1/2011  FOO             10
1/1/2011  BAR             12
2/1/2011  FOO             16
3/1/2011  BAR             21
5/1/2011  FOO             19
4/1/2011  BAR             23

Note that 'Dates' are not ordered. Note also that I have two different values in 'Name'.

I would like a chart like a XY (scatter) chart that shows 2 lines, one for FOO, one for BAR.

The chart must have a X-axis representing dates (correctly spaced relatively to each other value)

The chart must have a Y-axis representing values (correctly spaced relatively to each other value)

Maybe a line chart would do the trick? Please, if possible, avoid any new computation of values, or restructuring the table data. It seems easy for a tool like Excel to create such a chart without helping it by predoing some work on the data...

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1 Answer 1

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Please, if possible, avoid any new computation of values, or restructuring the table data

Placing such a constraint on the solution will likely only make the solution more complex, if its possible at all.

For what its worth, I would add two additional columns and chart those as a scatter chart:

       A           B       C       D                       E
1      Date        Name    Value   FOO                     BAR
2
3      1/1/2011    FOO     10      =IF($B3=D$1,$C3,NA())   =IF($B3=E$1,$C3,NA())
4      1/1/2011    BAR     12      =IF($B4=D$1,$C4,NA())   =IF($B4=E$1,$C4,NA())

etc

PS please include version of Excel in your question (as a tag) as it can affect the answer

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  • Thanks for this answer. But what if I don't know in advance the different Names (FOO, BAR) ? Maybe I need some VBA code to create those additional columns... Sep 7, 2011 at 10:01
  • VBA would probably be the way to go if the number of columns can vary. If its fixed at two, then formulas can be used to get those two values Sep 7, 2011 at 10:26
  • If you don't know FOO, BAR etc in advance make a pivot table with dates and name as axes
    – mmmmmm
    Sep 7, 2011 at 11:59

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