line graphs

**slimjen** · 06-10-2009, 02:58 PM

Hi All, Im trying to do a line graph to compare data. The data involves only the first five months from last year and the first five months from this year. Also I have three sets of data to compare. 1st problem is when I graph, it seems to give me all of last years, even though there's no data for the last 7 months of last year; theres still a flat line. How do I get rid of it. When I try to plot just last years it doesn't go well when I try to add the months for this year. sample data

Code:

      jan08 feb08 march08 april08 may08 jan09 feb09 march09 april09 may09
gross 56 45 89 95 52 63 89 99 74 85
net 52 85 89 95 52 63 89 99 74 85
total 65 63 89 95 52 63 89 99 74 85

This nums are just made of to show you the format in cells I need the line graph to represent the multiple data on the same chart: jan08-may08 gross, jan09-may09 gross, jan08-may08 net jan09-may09 total, jan08-may08 total, jan09-may09 total,
Please help
Thanks

**teylyn** · 06-10-2009, 10:58 PM

Hi,

I've looked at your description and copied your data into an excel sheet to graph it. But I'm not sure I really understand what you want to achieve.

The way your data is laid out, you will have one continuous line for gross, and the categories on the x axis will be the months as shown in your column headers. If you want to compare, you probably mean that you want one line for 08 gross and another line for 09 gross.

I've made up some example graphs for your data layout and another suggested data layout in the attached file, changing the numbers so the data lines don't all overlap.

Please let me know if that is what you're after.

cheers