How do I control x-axis of 2D Scatter plot?

Question

Level 1

23 points

How do I control x-axis of 2D Scatter plot?

I am attempting to create a 2D scatter plot. I can select a column of data, & the values are plotted on the y axis. However, if "Share x values" is checked (default) the y axis values are also used for the x axis, resulting in a straight line on the plot. If "Share x values" is unchecked, the x values are simply the row number of the y values. This is true if I start with two columns of data selected as the Numbers manual indicates, or when I attempt to select the x or y axis data individually.

At one time I was able to create a true 2D scatter plot, which still works, however either something has changed in Numbers or I have lost the recipe for the secret sauce. Can anyone enlighten me?

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), late 2015

Posted on Aug 17, 2017 7:13 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

Aug 17, 2017 10:56 PM in response to BWhitman

Hi B,

Difficult to tell, without a screen shot showing your chart and the table supplying the data. Here are two screen shots of a three series scatter chart created for this discussion. The two shots differ only in the data generated in the x column (B) and the results calculated from that data.

Notes below.

Notes:

Column A is a Header column.

Row 1 is a Header row.

All other cells are 'regular' cells in the body of the document.

All data for the chart is contained in 'regular' cells.

The values in Header rows or Header columns may be used as labels for the chart (as Y1, Y2 and Y3 are here), but data in these cells cannot be used as chart data.

To make the chart, I selected cells B2 to E10, then chose Scatter Chart from the 2D section of the Charts button's menu.

After the chart was made, I made few adjustments:

Changed the number of steps in values on each axis to a value that produced integer values (This held for the x axis when the table was recalculated, but did not hold for the Y axis.
Inserted curves to connect the data points in each series.
Resized the chart to fit beside the table in a screen shot here.

Constructed using Numbers 5.6.2 on OS X 10.11.x (El Capitan)

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,939 points

Aug 17, 2017 9:33 PM in response to BWhitman

Hi B,

For a scatter plot, X and Y data must be in body cells (not Header cells).

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 3

BWhitman Author

Level 1

23 points

Aug 29, 2017 9:56 AM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks, that solved the problem. I did not know (& the Apple help documentation does not say) that the x-axis values cannot be in a header column - if Apple is listening, it would be good to correct that oversight - would have saved me several hours of frustration.

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Answer 4

BWhitman Author

Level 1

23 points

Aug 29, 2017 9:58 AM in response to Barry

Thanks, that solved the problem. I did not know (& the Apple help documentation does not say) that the x-axis values cannot be in a header column - if Apple is listening, it would be good to correct that oversight - would have saved me several hours of frustration.

BTW, I note that you are using Numbers 5.6.2 & OS X El Capitan. I am running OS X Sierra 10.12.6 & the latest version of Numbers (4.2) that I can find

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Answer 5

BWhitman Author

Level 1

23 points

Aug 18, 2017 9:51 AM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks very much for the into - I am going to be away for a week & have run out of time to work on this, but will be back in touch again after I return & try this out.

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Answer 6

BWhitman Author

Level 1

23 points

Aug 18, 2017 9:53 AM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks very much for the into - I am going to be away for a week & have run out of time to work on this, but will be back in touch again after I return & try this out.

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