X Axis puzzlement

[Carole O]

Why, when I do a simple bar chart on this table:
Territory JUL AUG SEP
3 123 156 192
4 234 156 254
5 345 248 369
6 254 235 358
7 219 245 256

does the X axis show 1,2,3,4,5 and the Legend shows Territory

But - when I replace 3-7 with NE, NW, SE, SW, C, the X axis shows NE, NW...
and the legend only shows Jul, Aug, Sep (and drops Territory - as it should)

I've changed the cell definition to text for the 3-7 - I'm sure there is
something very obvious - I just can't grasp it. (It is Friday afternoon!)

TIA
Carole O

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

Excel is trying to guess you data layout.
With the values 3,4,5,6,7. Excel assumes you have 4 columns of data.
Territory having the Y values 3,4,5,6,7. Excel helpfully use a row count
for the x axis labels, 1 to 5.

Changing the values under territory to non numeric causes excel to guess
that you want those as your x axis labels so reduces the series to 3.

The simplest way to get 3 series, Jul/Aug/Sep, is to move the cell
containing territory so it's not in the selected range when you create
the chart.

Cheers
Andy

Carole O wrote:
> Why, when I do a simple bar chart on this table:
> Territory JUL AUG SEP
> 3 123 156 192
> 4 234 156 254
> 5 345 248 369
> 6 254 235 358
> 7 219 245 256
>
> does the X axis show 1,2,3,4,5 and the Legend shows Territory
>
> But - when I replace 3-7 with NE, NW, SE, SW, C, the X axis shows NE, NW...
> and the legend only shows Jul, Aug, Sep (and drops Territory - as it should)
>
> I've changed the cell definition to text for the 3-7 - I'm sure there is
> something very obvious - I just can't grasp it. (It is Friday afternoon!)
>
> TIA
> Carole O

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info