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How to swap rows and columns?

  1. #1

    How to swap rows and columns?

    I had a heart attack last year, and my doctor told me to keep a
    journal of diet, exercise, etc. I'm using an Excel worksheet to do
    it. Each column is a day of the year, and the rows are items, like
    how far I walked that day, how much I ate, how much sleep, my weight,
    my blood pressure, etc. As I got in the habit of using it, I started
    adding other stuff, so now it's become an important repository of data
    for me.

    The problem is, I thought Excel had essentially unlimited rows and
    columns, and it turns out that it only has 256 columns, which isn't
    enough for a year. It has thousands of rows, and I have way less than
    200 categories of activities I record, so if I could just switch the
    rows and columns around, I would be OK.

    So I have two questions:

    1) Is there any way to swap the rows and columns around, without
    losing the data? In other words, can I change it so that the rows are
    the dates, and the columns are the activities?

    2) Is there a relatively cheap and easy to learn program that would be
    better than Excel for what I'm doing (daily journal)?

    Thanks for any help.





  2. #2
    Anne Troy
    Guest

    Re: How to swap rows and columns?

    Actually, I cannot think of a better/easier program to use for your purpose.
    Way to go.
    Now select ALL your data, and hit Ctrl+C to copy it.
    Go to a new worksheet and hit Edit-->Paste special-->Transpose.
    That's it!
    Stay healthy!
    ************
    Anne Troy
    www.OfficeArticles.com

    <[email protected]> wrote in message
    news:[email protected]...
    >I had a heart attack last year, and my doctor told me to keep a
    > journal of diet, exercise, etc. I'm using an Excel worksheet to do
    > it. Each column is a day of the year, and the rows are items, like
    > how far I walked that day, how much I ate, how much sleep, my weight,
    > my blood pressure, etc. As I got in the habit of using it, I started
    > adding other stuff, so now it's become an important repository of data
    > for me.
    >
    > The problem is, I thought Excel had essentially unlimited rows and
    > columns, and it turns out that it only has 256 columns, which isn't
    > enough for a year. It has thousands of rows, and I have way less than
    > 200 categories of activities I record, so if I could just switch the
    > rows and columns around, I would be OK.
    >
    > So I have two questions:
    >
    > 1) Is there any way to swap the rows and columns around, without
    > losing the data? In other words, can I change it so that the rows are
    > the dates, and the columns are the activities?
    >
    > 2) Is there a relatively cheap and easy to learn program that would be
    > better than Excel for what I'm doing (daily journal)?
    >
    > Thanks for any help.
    >
    >
    >
    >




  3. #3
    Dave O
    Guest

    Re: How to swap rows and columns?

    Answer to q1: yes. Step 1 is to make a backup copy of your data so you
    don't accidentally lose anything, and learn the procedure that follows
    on your backup copy.

    All you need to do is highlight your data, then click >Edit >Copy.
    Move to a new space in the worksheet, or a new tab; click >Edit >Paste
    Special and select the Transpose box. Rows become columns and vice
    versa.

    I don't know about q2- if Excel is working for you, and particularly if
    you're tracking differences in sleep / weight / BP over time, you may
    want to stay with Excel since it does math, graphs, etc.


  4. #4
    Roger Govier
    Guest

    Re: How to swap rows and columns?

    Hi

    Save a copy of your existing data - just in case!
    Mark the range of your data.
    Copy it all.
    Choose another sheet.
    Paste Special>Transpose

    With regards to another program, I can;t help. What you are doing in Excel
    sounds fine.

    Regards

    Roger Govier


    [email protected] wrote:
    > I had a heart attack last year, and my doctor told me to keep a
    > journal of diet, exercise, etc. I'm using an Excel worksheet to do
    > it. Each column is a day of the year, and the rows are items, like
    > how far I walked that day, how much I ate, how much sleep, my weight,
    > my blood pressure, etc. As I got in the habit of using it, I started
    > adding other stuff, so now it's become an important repository of data
    > for me.
    >
    > The problem is, I thought Excel had essentially unlimited rows and
    > columns, and it turns out that it only has 256 columns, which isn't
    > enough for a year. It has thousands of rows, and I have way less than
    > 200 categories of activities I record, so if I could just switch the
    > rows and columns around, I would be OK.
    >
    > So I have two questions:
    >
    > 1) Is there any way to swap the rows and columns around, without
    > losing the data? In other words, can I change it so that the rows are
    > the dates, and the columns are the activities?
    >
    > 2) Is there a relatively cheap and easy to learn program that would be
    > better than Excel for what I'm doing (daily journal)?
    >
    > Thanks for any help.
    >
    >
    >
    >


  5. #5
    Dave Peterson
    Guest

    Re: How to swap rows and columns?

    And just some thoughts...

    Be as granular as you can.

    Use separate columns for the systolic and one column for the diastolic
    measurements. (It'll be easier to do math that way.)

    If you take your measurements a couple of times per day, use a different pair
    for each instance.

    If you keep track of the time you eat, use multiple columns--time and items (you
    can use alt-enter to force new lines within a cell for the thanksgiving feast!)

    You may want to apply data|Filter|autofilter to see different rows (filter by
    day to see how you're doing on weekends??)

    And you may want to use format|conditional formatting to highlight those out of
    ordinary numbers.

    Save often and make backups!

    (I find a food diary (pen and notebook) easier to use for the diet stuff.)



    [email protected] wrote:
    >
    > I had a heart attack last year, and my doctor told me to keep a
    > journal of diet, exercise, etc. I'm using an Excel worksheet to do
    > it. Each column is a day of the year, and the rows are items, like
    > how far I walked that day, how much I ate, how much sleep, my weight,
    > my blood pressure, etc. As I got in the habit of using it, I started
    > adding other stuff, so now it's become an important repository of data
    > for me.
    >
    > The problem is, I thought Excel had essentially unlimited rows and
    > columns, and it turns out that it only has 256 columns, which isn't
    > enough for a year. It has thousands of rows, and I have way less than
    > 200 categories of activities I record, so if I could just switch the
    > rows and columns around, I would be OK.
    >
    > So I have two questions:
    >
    > 1) Is there any way to swap the rows and columns around, without
    > losing the data? In other words, can I change it so that the rows are
    > the dates, and the columns are the activities?
    >
    > 2) Is there a relatively cheap and easy to learn program that would be
    > better than Excel for what I'm doing (daily journal)?
    >
    > Thanks for any help.


    --

    Dave Peterson

  6. #6

    Re: How to swap rows and columns?

    The copy with transpose worked perfectly. Thank you all for the help,
    and for the good wishes.

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