Charting data vs. 2 different time formats

[Lminer76]

Hello,

I am trying to create a chart using 2 different sets of data. One is measured every second, and the other every minute. Is there a way to compare them over time? It seems when I choose the time on the x axis, excel treats it as general text and doesn't arrange the corresponding values properly. I first ploted the values that I have every minute and used the time in seconds as the x axis, but it just dropped them in 1 to one instead of 1 every 60.

[NickyC]

Hi
I once had a similar problem and solved it by changing the chart type from line to xy scatter, then setting the series format to line not markers

[Lminer76]

Hi
I once had a similar problem and solved it by changing the chart type from line to xy scatter, then setting the series format to line not markers

Thanks Nicky,
That made it look a little better. Before that change, I ws only able to see one of the series. It is still plotting them incorrectly. I have 4 hours worth of data that I am trying to plot, so there are 14400 points for the series that is measured every second, and 240 for the series that is measured every minute. If I use an x axis with secods included, it charts the smaller series in the first 4 minutes. If I use only minutes, it only shows the first 4 minutesof the larges series. It is not recognizing that the x axis is actual times, but seems to see them as either 240 or 14400 points.

Larry

[Lminer76]

ScreenHunter_06 Aug. 01 14.38.jpg

Above is the result that I am getting. The 2 series should cover the same time frame, with the blue series just being less densely populated. Instead it is just throwing them all into the first 240 available units on the x axis.

[MrShorty]

It's impossible to tell anything from a screenshot. A scatter plot should do this, as long as you are
1) telling Excel to use a scatter plot
2) telling Excel what to use for the x values and
3) the x values are actual time stamps that it can recognize as time values and not text.
It looks to me like Excel is assuming x values of {1,2,3,...} because it cannot recognize your time stamps as actual, numeric times.

[Lminer76]

MrShorty,
I figuered it should do this, but didn't. I did change it from line to XY scatter which gave the results seen in the screenshot. And the times were actual numeric times. I confirmed this by switching them to general and making sure they lined up on each set of data. I figured out a fix for this by designating one of the series as the secondary y axis, then specifing a secondary y axis. I then used the same exact range for primary and secondary axis for both the x and y. When I do this, the data lines up like it is supposed to, which confirms to me that the data points are numerical times, but confuses me even more that it doesn't work without making one secondary.

[NickyC]

A couple of (maybe dumb!) questions:

- do all your observations for the first (seconds) series fall in a much shorter time span than the second (minutes) series?
- do both series' x-axis data have the same numbver formats?

or, perhaps you could upload a spreadsheet and we could take a look