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I am line plotting numbers ranging from 1e-16 to 1e-14, and the y axis doesn't scale properly. All I get is a single number at the x-axis intersection and no additional values above. If I divide the numbers by 1e-15, the y-axis autoscales properly.
I am line plotting numbers ranging from 1e-16 to 1e-14, and the y axis doesn't scale properly. All I get is a single number at the x-axis intersection and no additional values above. If I divide the numbers by 1e-15, the y-axis autoscales properly.
I can't replicate the problem. When the y axis is scaled properly, what does it look like? can you supply a sample data set?
Hello MrShorty, thanks for the response...I uploaded a sample file.
In converting your file to the older format, I lost the chart. When I recreated a chart with your data, the y-axis looked just fine, so I still am not able to recreate the problem.
Viewing the file in Google docs shows the chart, and it looks just fine. You're plotting values from about 3.4E-15 to 3.8E-15, and the y scale looks about right for the data plotted. I guess I'm just not sure what problem you are trying to describe.
Last edited by MrShorty; 09-14-2012 at 11:12 AM.
I just added a snapshot of what I see. Notice they y axis doesn't show the major ticks and numbering it should.
I would suggest it is a bug when dealing with small values.
xl2003 and the latest xl2013 preview handle the scale labeling correctly
Use an xy-scatter and then you can add another series and fake the axis labeling with data labels linked to cells.
Free addin to link labels to cells
http://www.appspro.com/Utilities/ChartLabeler.htm
Or some other problem in this specific file or something specific to your maching. Have you tried closing and reopening Excel? If you start in a new spreadsheet and hand enter the values and create the chart from scratch, does the problem continue? Does it depend on the chart type?
I tried it on an xp box running 2007 and a win7 box running 2010, same problem with both. Sounds like it's a bug as Andy suggested, that got fixed in 2013. Too bad they didn't put out a bug fix for the earlier releases.
Thanks for the help guys.
Still seems to me like a bug specific to your situation. I can create plots with small numbers like this all day, and I have never had this kind of problem. Here's a spreadsheet where I took your data (from Google Docs), copied into a new spreadsheet (Win 7 Office 2002/XP), created a new line chart based on the last column in the dataset, and I did not observe the same problem you observed.
If it is a bug in Excel, it is more than just Excel doesn't know how to plot very small numbers. It seems to me that there must be more to it than that.
@MrShorty, it is specific to Greg212 situtation in the sense that it is the version of excel that has the bug.
Your file is fine in xl2003. But the same file in xl2010 only has the first value on the vertical value axis.
If you multiple all the values by 100 then the scale starts working again.
The actual data points are plotted correctly.
@Andy, so you think it is some smalll incompatibility between the older versions of Excel and the newer versions, or do you think it is a bug specific to 2007/2010?
It's a bug introduced in 2007. Still present in 2010. Fixed in the 2013 preview.
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