Connecting lines through null values, and date values on x-axis

Hi, I'm new to Numbers and I had a couple questions:

1) I've created a scatter chart with date values along the x-axis and three columns of data along the y-axis. Some of the data values are missing, yet I'd still like to connect the points, from the first data point through to the last without a break in the line.

Is there a way to connect lines through null values?

If I had all the values for a given data set, it'd look like this:

1----2----3----4----5

But with missing values, the line discontinues at the missing data point and looks like this:

1----2 4----5

Ideally, it'd look like this:

1----2---------4----5

2) I can't seem to be able to label the dates on the x-axis. The date option is grayed out. Is this a bug?

Thanks in advance for the help.

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 22, 2013 6:21 PM

18 replies

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,939 points

Jan 18, 2014 6:44 PM in response to Badsushi

Hi Badsushi (and ham_n_eggs),

2) I can't seem to be able to label the dates on the x-axis. The date option is grayed out. Is this a bug?

A scatter plot in Numbers 3 does not show Dates correctly. Convert them into numbers (for example, the number of weeks from the start). Formula in C2 (and Fill Down):

=DUR2WEEKS(B2−B$2)

Note: I used 1 Jan 2013 as the start. You can use any date as your start, then calculate weeks from that date. Will also work with times (for example, hours from the start).

You can send feedback to Apple to ask for improved handling of dates in Scatter Plots.

Menu > Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback.

Regards,

Ian.

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,939 points

Jan 18, 2014 7:44 PM in response to Badsushi

Hi Badsushi,

Yeah, unfortunately, they are not part of a regular series.

And neither is this. Measurements made at irregular intervals, converted to days from the start to form a Scatter Plot.

Formula in C2 is

=DUR2DAYS(B2−B$2)

Regards,

Ian.

Jan 24, 2014 9:28 PM in response to Yellowbox

It looks like, with Numbers 3.1, Apple has resolved both the date-on-the-x-axis and the additional x,y data series problems.

The latter doesn't work as a drag-and-drop, as per Numbers '09, but works if you first control-shift click on the chart and then select the additional series in the table.

Thank you, Apple.

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Connecting lines through null values, and date values on x-axis