Create a XY scatter plot with several series

[Robert McFarland]

I am looking to be able to easily create an XY scatter
plot where the points can be identified in to separate
series by a catagorical variable in a third column. Right
now I do it by sorting on the third column and selecting
(X and Y) one series at a time. Its okay if there are two
or three catagories, but is not very user friendly if I
want to change the catagories, there are several
catagories or there are hundereds of points.

Thanks
Bob

 

[Jerry W. Lewis]

Sorry, it can't be done in the way you wish. A chart series is
specified by a cell range, and all values in that range will be plotted.

A possibly simpler way than you have been using is create a second table
with x-values as the left column, followed by single column for each
category and the category ID in the row above the first row of data.
You could then populate this second table from your first table with a
VLOOKUP formula. Select the entire second table (including the category
ID row), and Insert|Chart ...

Jerry