Excel 2007 : graphing a continuous data series/assuming zeros

[Taft584]

Hello,
I have been working on a project during which I have had to keep track of the number of bird present at a feeder at any given point in time over the course of an hour and I had to do this multiple times a day for a week. Now that I have collected my data I am trying to graph the information but am struggling to get excel to do what I want it to do (and dont even know if its possible_.

I have been trying to graph time passed on the x-axis and number of birds present on the right. The problem is that the lowest number of birds I have recorded is 1 and excel assumes that is the lowest it needs to go and connects the 1s with a straight line. Is there any way that I can create a graph with a horizontal axis representing a 60 minute period of time where any point without a value is assumed to be 0? If that doesnt make sense, I am essentially trying to make a line graph that goes down to 0, but not having to enter 0 for that point in time.

Also, how does excel deal with duplicates? Since I did this multiple days, there is some overlap in data and it would be nice if just sum two data entries matching the same time period.

Thanks in advance, sorry if that is confusing

[FDibbins]

to the best of my knowledge, if excel sees a blankcell in a graph range, it skips over the blank cells, and just connects from point 3 to point 5. if you dont want to add 0's (if you have a ton of data), use a formula to test for blanks and replace them with 0

let me know how this works for you?

[Taft584]

Hey FDippins, thanks for the respose.

Sorry, I explained myself poorly there. Basically, at any time I have observed a bird I recorded the time and the number of birds present. This means that the data series I have entered under time isnt continuous and only includes points in time I actually saw a bird.

So I essentially want to figure out two things:

1) Is there a way to make the horizontal axis a represent each minute from 0:00 to 1:00, and for any minute that does not have a quantity associated with it, for it to assume it is Zero. I have a ton of entries and sorting through to sort out the minutes without any birds would be... painful...

2) Since its from multiple days and multiple people, I have more than one entry for some minutes. For example, I have one entry on 4/19 at 0:15 with 5 birds, two on 4/20 at 0:15 with 2 birds. Is there a way to create a graph that sums these automatically.

Im sorry, I only really know enough about excel to get it to do my calculus homework for me and I am struggling. This is one of those unfortunate situations where a group project gets dumped on one person and I am a little brain dead from trying to get it sorted out. That being said, if anyone knows of a better graphic program to use, I am open to suggestions.

Regardless, thank you for taking the time to try a help me.

[Taft584]

So figured out how to sort out the horizontal axis, in an admittedly clunky way, but it works

So now all I need to figure out is how to make a worksheet or a graph that just sums (or better yet, averages) all entries that correspond with a certain time, instead of trying to graph them separately. I would just do it manually, but I'm still adding information to it and would have to redo it every time.

[FDibbins]

ok i understand better now. however it would be easier to help if you could provide a sample file with some data in it?

[Taft584]

I actually figured it out! Discovered the amazing world of Pivot tables, which actually solves both of my original problems. It also made my random data WAY easier to read.

Thanks for trying to help FDibbins!