Area charts and blank cells

Hi,

I'm trying to plot costs vs. time (month) on an area chart. I want to split
up the costs by time, so I've created a bunch of different data series which
look something like:
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
$2 $6 $1
$1 $3
$3 $8 $4

This is basically just breaking up the original data series... ie
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
$2 $6 $1 $3 $8 $4

I was hoping this would produce a nice, continuous area chart sectioned off
by colour. The problem is that it interprets the blank spaces as zero and so
I get these weird edges at the end of series... like going from $3 in Apr to
$0 in May. What I would like it to do is just drop straight down from $3 to
$0 in Apr (so just a vertical line). Any way to do this?

If there's a way to shade under line graphs, that would also do the trick...
because those don't plot blank spaces as zero. Thanks for your help!!

Hi Pat,

There is a trick involved. Enter each month twice, change the x-Axis to a time-scale, and enter the value where you wish to drop straight down in only the first occurrence of the month.

That is, enter the data like this...

Jan-05 Feb-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 Apr-05 May-05 May-05
2 6 6 1
1 3
3 8 8

Then create a stacked area chart. Then, select the chart, use menu item
Chart-Chart Options-Axes and change the X-Axis to Time-scale. Format the
X-Axis to use a one-month base unit.

Ed Ferrero
http://edferrero.m6.net/


> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to plot costs vs. time (month) on an area chart. I want to split
> up the costs by time, so I've created a bunch of different data series which
> look something like:
> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
> $2 $6 $1
> $1 $3
> $3 $8 $4
>
> This is basically just breaking up the original data series... ie
> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
> $2 $6 $1 $3 $8 $4
>
> I was hoping this would produce a nice, continuous area chart sectioned off
> by colour. The problem is that it interprets the blank spaces as zero and so
> I get these weird edges at the end of series... like going from $3 in Apr to
> $0 in May. What I would like it to do is just drop straight down from $3 to
> $0 in Apr (so just a vertical line). Any way to do this?
>
> If there's a way to shade under line graphs, that would also do the trick...
> because those don't plot blank spaces as zero. Thanks for your help!!
>

Great!! Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. Just a comment - I'm not
too sure why the stacked chart is needed. I tried it with a plain Area chart
and it worked fine. Thanks again!

Pat

"Ed Ferrero" wrote:

> Hi Pat,
>
> There is a trick involved. Enter each month twice, change the x-Axis to a time-scale, and enter the value where you wish to drop straight down in only the first occurrence of the month.
>
> That is, enter the data like this...
>
> Jan-05 Feb-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 Apr-05 May-05 May-05
> 2 6 6 1
> 1 3
> 3 8 8
>
> Then create a stacked area chart. Then, select the chart, use menu item
> Chart-Chart Options-Axes and change the X-Axis to Time-scale. Format the
> X-Axis to use a one-month base unit.
>
> Ed Ferrero
> http://edferrero.m6.net/
>
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to plot costs vs. time (month) on an area chart. I want to split
> > up the costs by time, so I've created a bunch of different data series which
> > look something like:
> > Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
> > $2 $6 $1
> > $1 $3
> > $3 $8 $4
> >
> > This is basically just breaking up the original data series... ie
> > Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
> > $2 $6 $1 $3 $8 $4
> >
> > I was hoping this would produce a nice, continuous area chart sectioned off
> > by colour. The problem is that it interprets the blank spaces as zero and so
> > I get these weird edges at the end of series... like going from $3 in Apr to
> > $0 in May. What I would like it to do is just drop straight down from $3 to
> > $0 in Apr (so just a vertical line). Any way to do this?
> >
> > If there's a way to shade under line graphs, that would also do the trick...
> > because those don't plot blank spaces as zero. Thanks for your help!!
> >