Scatter plot with dates

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Level 5

5,035 points

Scatter plot with dates

The one reason i use scatter plots is to make the X axis my dates. so i see the duration between data points as real distance horizontally. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do this on the ipad. It seems to not have a way of tweaking the data source so that I can tell it that column B (dates) is my x axis, and column C (lets say remaining data MB's, lets use something everyone on a 250 plan can associate with) is my actual data point to plot.

Anyone figure out this one yet?

Thanks,
Jason

Mac mini, iPhone, iPad, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on May 13, 2010 7:26 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Charles Minow

Level 6

9,184 points

May 13, 2010 10:00 PM in response to jaxjason

Jason,

Her's what I've figured out so far (using the updated Numbers that just came out today):

I can make a scatter chart if I put the dates into the second column and the y values into the third column. If I put the dates into the leftmost gray column, I can't select them for my chart.

One strange thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to format the x axis. I get what look to be time values (around 200 million for Jan. 1, 2010) as x axis values, but there's no way that i can see to make them back into dates. But the graph points definitely spread across the x axis in proportion to the dates I've entered.

Charlie

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Answer 2

jaxjason Author

Level 5

5,035 points

May 14, 2010 7:03 AM in response to Charles Minow

I will try that now that the update is out. Thanks, I will get back if I can figure out the format thing.

Thanks alot,
Jason

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Answer 3

jaxjason Author

Level 5

5,035 points

May 14, 2010 7:27 AM in response to jaxjason

ok, i was able to 'kinda' get it to work (not the labelling, but the scatter plot). It seems you have to select the date column first when selecting data, then drag over to the columns of plotted data and it -might- recognize the dates as the x axis. it took me a good 5 minutes playing to get it to go right.

I also had to check the "Share X values" option under the gear button.

as for the labels, it has a "Number format" and a "Same as source", but if you select same as source, it doesn't give you any choices but plain number for formatting. Same as source doesn't work at all right now for dates.

We both need to submit tickets with apple.com\feedback to let them know. I noticed other little fixes that were not documented in the 1.1 update that people had been submitting tickets on the past few weeks.

Thanks,
Jason

Jason

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