Area charts and blank cells

[Guest]

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!!

 

[Ed Ferrero]

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/

 

[Guest]

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