Thread: Is this a frequency chart?

I tried searching for this but I think I don't know enough to know what to search for. I'm working in Excel 2003.

Let's say I have this data:

Items listed down the left with availability dates for each item in columns to the right . . .

Item1 8/13/08 7/7/08 6/6/08 10/15/07 5/5/07
Item2 7/18/08 7/6/08 7/1/08
Item3 3/3/08
Item4 4/15/07 11/2/07 2/22/08 6/9/08

What I would like is some kind of a charted view of this data that would show the frequency of each item with Items on the y axis and time on the x. At least that's what I think I want.

My questions:
1. Is this really what I want?
2. How do I get this data to produce such a chart, i.e. do I need to rearrange the data. It does not seem to be working as shown above.

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide!

Not really, Andy, but in trying to devise a "picture" of what I'm thinking of I have given myself several ideas about how to analyze the data I'm working with. (I love this stuff!)

I'll go play around with that and come back with either my solution or a more specific question. Thanks for your help!

You need to answer the question of what you want to show before you can plan how to show it.

This is a frequency chart from my job in 2002.