How can I plot irregular dates on a regular x axis?

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supportgruby Author

Level 1

10 points

How can I plot irregular dates on a regular x axis?

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 24, 2020 12:52 PM

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Answer 1

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supportgruby Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 24, 2020 4:20 PM in response to Badunit

Badunit- thanks. I found the answer. I Created a new column called “number of weeks from the beginning“. I took each date and subtracted it from the beginning date. The dates subtracted automatically and calculated the number of weeks to that test point. So I plotted that week number against the reading and therefore I had a uniform x-axis and uniform Y axis. My final objective was to create a logarithmic plot which I was able to do with the formatting built-in the numbers.

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

30,354 points

Aug 24, 2020 2:45 PM in response to supportgruby

You mean like this?

Use the chart that looks like a shotgun blast of plus signs. The X data cannot be in a header column/row (unlike with the other charts where it must be in a header column/row). The most difficult part might be formatting the X axis to get "regular" dates on it versus whatever dates happen to fit the gridlines. For this one I chose a min of 1/1/1990, max of 1/1/2021 ,and 31 steps (corresponding to the 31 years). I also turned on the X axis gridlines and did some other minor formatting. It is showing only every other X axis gridline/step/value because the chart is not wide enough to show them all.

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Answer 3

Badunit

Level 7

30,354 points

Aug 24, 2020 9:50 PM in response to supportgruby

If you use a chart other than the scatter chart, the X axis values will be evenly spaced on the axis. Those other charts treat the X axis data as text, as categories, even if it is numbers. All get spaced out evenly. It works out correctly if your numbers are evenly spaced like 1,2,3... or 0,4,8...

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