How to create an XY plot with data from non-adjacent columns

DesertRatR wrote:

The table is a POC demonstration with a lot of complexity. The final product will be better designed. I tend to plot a lot to see if the numbers intuitively make sense.

Sure, I sometimes work with messy layouts myself.😀

And it is indeed a one-shot thing (takes a couple of seconds or so) to do what you want in Numbers, per my previous response.

Just select the two non-contiguous ranges first (using the command-key trick) and then via the menu Insert > Chart > 2D Scatter.

And as Ian points out, make sure that data is not in Header Columns.

Have you tried this?

SG

I can't recommend that table design. It's usually better to have data sensibly aligned and to have a header row (which you cannot have if your data starts at row 1 in an Exelsy fashion)

However, what you describe is possible.

First select cells A1:15. Hold down the command key, and select cells J17:31. You should see two non-contiguous ranges are now selected.

Then in the menu choose Insert > Chart > 2D Scatter and the chart will appear.

You can confirm the data is being drawn from your desired ranges by clicking the chart, followed by the format "Paintbrush," and going to the Series tab.

SG

it's going to be hard to do this as as one-shot thing, because Numbers always assumes that all cells in a given row is associated with the other cells in that row, so it's not going to associate J17 with A1 under any normal circumstances.

It IS possible to get it to use Column A for the labels, but it will used whatever value is in A17 as the label for the data point J17 since they're on the same row.

The simplest solution for you, though, is an intermediary table.

Just create a new table that's two columns wide and has enough rows for what you're trying to plot (e.g. 15).

In this table, set cell A1 to:

=Table 1::A1:A15

(adjust the table name to match the table with your data if it's not called 'Table 1')

Set cell B2 to:

=Table 1::J17:J31

Now your intermediary table 'pulls' the data from your main table. Mark column A as a header column (Inspector -> Format -> Table -> Header rows and columns and you're one click away from creating a chart of your data.

The nice thing about this is that it's trivial to adjust the data you're charting. You only need to change the value in cell B1 to point to the data range you want and the chart will reflect that change.

Here's my example.

The Source Data in Table 1 contains the labels in Header Column A, and a series of values in column D

In my intermediate table you can see the formulas used in A1 and B1, which simply pull respective chunks of data from Table 1.

The chart is built off Table 2

Since the values and category labels align, there's no question as to how to align the datapoints.

Hi DesertRatR,

Just a heads up: if you want to create an X-Y Scatter Plot, make sure that both your X values and Y values are not in Header Columns.

Please call back if I have not explained clearly.

Regards,

Ian.