Trouble With Charts and Dates....

[bugmenot]

I hope this makes sense.

I'm trying to track the ups and downs of two different things. I want to have a chart with two lines on it - A and B and then, on the bottom, I want to show the date.

The problem I'm having is that updates to A and B happen on different dates.

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If I put that data into an Excel chart - what happens is that the blanks become '0'. Instead of B showing a smooth line going from 9 to 11 - it's a jagged line that goes 0-9-10-0-11.

Is there anyway to make my chart display what I want? I know I can do the math by hand to fill in the missing data - and I've done that in the past. I end up entering each and every day possible and then figuring the rate of change between real readings; but it's a lot of work and seems wasteful.

Can anyone help me out?

[moreeg]

Are you using 2007? There is an option when you "Select Data" (by right clicking on the chart) for "Hidden and Empty Cells" (at the bottom right of the pop-up). Select "Connect data points with line"

I believe 2003 had a similar option.

[teylyn]

Using moreeg's suggestion, then change the chart type to XY Scatter chart.

[moreeg]

Hi Teylyn

Wouldn't that result in a series of data points with no connecting line? The way I read the requirement is that he wants those connecting lines between data points.

Another suggestion would be to format the X axis as text so that you can get the dates specific to your array.

[teylyn]

moreeg, why would there be no connecting lines? XY charts can look just like line charts. Data markers or not, lines or not, or both lines and data markers.

Changing the X axis to text is exactly what you don't want to do. An XY chart automatically scales the X axis if it consists of time values, so the data points have the appropriate distance with regards to the dates they belong to.