Can't Specify Data for the X-Axis in Line Graphs?

Most of my spreadsheet work is simple data plotting (usually just x-y plots of values vs. time). Is there some way to specify which column is for the x-axis data (it seems to only care about specifying the y-data)?

Also, there's a serious flaw in how it created a graph. I created a small table, 3 columns by 10 rows. Column A would be the x-axis (time), and coluns B and C would be the data values. I was using this to play with the program to get to learn how to use it.

For column A, I used 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 as the values. When I created the plot, it seemed to be fine, with those values being the x-axis, and lines showing the data from columns B and C. But it plotted the B and C column values against what row in the table they were on, not against the values in column A.

That is, the data values that were in the second row of data should've been at "2" on the x-axis, but were at "1", data on the next row were at "2" on the x-axis instead of "4", etc.

Am I doing something wrong, or what? The graphs themselves aren't really too professional looking as well (can't change line thickness, etc to make them look nice), but that's secondary to being able to specify x and y data, not to mention having it plot the data correctly.

PowerMac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 17, 2007 10:39 AM

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6 replies

Aug 17, 2007 6:06 PM in response to budopo

Still learning, too. It seems like Numbers always wants to use column A for the x-axis for line graphs. And it treats the values in column A as labels (not as numbers). Hence, irregularly spaced x data will be evenly spaced in the resulting graph.

However, I couldn't reproduce your results. I did get labels of 0, 2, 4, ... for the x-axis.

The closest I can get to a true time-series graph (with irregular x data) is to plot a scatter plot. It then uses the selected columns (the x values do not need to be in column A). This would allow for irregularly spaced x data. However, you cannot connect the markers with a line!

Aug 17, 2007 8:11 PM in response to jaxjason

Agreed. I always use scatter plots in Excel for time-series data. However, I don't think you can have more than one (y) series plotted versus the x data in Numbers. Hope I'm wrong about that, but I haven't figured out how. In Excel, if you select multiple columns for a scatter (xy) plot, the leftmost column is used for the x-axis and the other columns are the y data. You will get separate lines (and/or markers) for each column that makes up the y data.

You can also select noncontiguous data to plot in Excel. I haven't figured out how to do that in Numbers either.

Aug 17, 2007 8:26 PM in response to bchamp

I think I must be misunderstanding you, when you say noncontiguous, do you mean data in columns A and C? You select the first column of data, then teh command key and the next Column. Choose chart as normal. I got the same chart that way as next to each other.
If thats not what you, mean, if you could clarify, then one of us might come up with an answer.

Jason

Aug 18, 2007 7:08 AM in response to bchamp

Actually, you did reproduce my results. I did get 0, 2, 4, etc as x-axis labels. They just weren't in the right places along the x-axis.

I rarely use Excel for graphs (I use PSI-Plot, but that only comes in a Windows version, so I only use it at work, and I'm open to suggestions for a similar program for OS X).

I thought of using a scatter plot, but couldn't connect the data points. I'm also not too impressed with the unrefined look of the graphs (to me, they look somewhat like a cartoon instead of something I'd want to show my boss). For $79 for 3 programs, I can't expect too much, but I would expect some basic features.

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Can't Specify Data for the X-Axis in Line Graphs?

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