Excel

[TooCute]

Two questions, one stupid, the other not as stupid.

First the not as stupid (and not as crucial) one: stupid autoformatting. any number it thinks is a date, it turns into a date. If I got to subsequently turn it into a number by changing the formatting of the cell or the column, it gets changed to a big number thta wasn't the on I initially put in. After I've hanged the formatting to number if I go and put the original number it turned into a date back in, it changes back to stupid date formatting. So how the fuck do I get it to stay as a number formatted cell after I've turned it into a number formatted cell?

Here's the retard question that I'm really embarassed to ask: I have a bunch of data from assorted dates and I want to plot it out with time as my x axis, but the dates aren't at regular intervals or anything. So how do I get it to plot out stuff at the appropriate points along the x-axis? Right now I have the data as days from start of experiment, but it just plots those as if they were a discontinuous variable and I really don't have time to figure this all out since I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow morning :(

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[TooCute]

and lets not comment on the typing. I have ben too busy to clean my keyboard and half my vowels as well as my c key only work about half the time.

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[DESERTEAGLE.50]

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[Reephdweller]

Here's the retard question that I'm really embarassed to ask: I have a bunch of data from assorted dates and I want to plot it out with time as my x axis, but the dates aren't at regular intervals or anything. So how do I get it to plot out stuff at the appropriate points along the x-axis? Right now I have the data as days from start of experiment, but it just plots those as if they were a discontinuous variable and I really don't have time to figure this all out since I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow morning


One of the things I do when I want to graph out numbers that are buried in a spreadsheet of data is to create a seperate worksheet and plug just those particular numbers in that I want graphed out. It's a little more work, however I find it a hell of a lot easier to put together than working across various cells. I usually only do that when I'm pressed for time and have to get the project out. It's not so much of a solution to your problem, but rather a workaround.

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[TooCute]

It's not that they're buried anywhere, it's just that they're not evenly distributed. My experiment spanned about 100 days and I have measurements from about once every 7, but they're not evenly spaced (stupid rain and stuff). So I have like 14 measurements or whatever and they need to go along my x axis at uneven intervals (i.e. day 1, day 6, day 15, day 24 etc). Am I explaining myself clearly? I don't know. I've been staring at mud covered tiles all day and my brain is too fried.

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[JPMNICK]

do you know how to make a graph at all? If not, just highlight the data and on the menu above look for a symbol that looks like a bar graph. click on this to get the type of graph you need. I here you can manipulate the data. Sorry if this is way easier than you need, but I have no idea of your computer knowledge


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[TooCute]

Yes, I know how to use a graph. In fact I'm usually proficient enough with excel, I mean I've made some pretty complicated population models and crap. For some reason I just can't figure out how to plot a continuous variable (i.e. time) on the x axis.

And yes I checked the excel help for this (btw what the help files tell you to do for the !@#%$!#@$@#% date autoformat doesn't work, and a google search didn't turn up much help)

I tried making a third column (jut numbers from 1-150 or whatever it was) and using those as my x axis and only having y values for the days I wanted but that didn't seem to work..

I'm so #@%$ing frustrated because this seems like it should be so easy and obvious and I'm feeling like a total idiot.

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[JPMNICK]

you can email it to me and I can try it if you would like. If not, it will be very hard to help you because as you said, you do know what you are doing. I know your pain and it sucks.

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[TooCute]

You know I take that all back.

I must have done sometihng wrong because doing it that last way (having ALL the number but only values for the ones I actually have data for) worked when I tried it with a small test series.

But jesus fucking christ it's going to take me all night to transfer the fucking values to the appropriate days.

I want to cry.

If anyone wants to know about things that live in the mud in the hudson river when I'm done, though, I'll be happy to tell you all about it.




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[TooCute]

Here's a question for the oracle:

Why does everyone use Excel when it FUCKING SUCKS???

And can we all boycott autoformat??

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[Reephdweller]

Why does everyone use Excel when it FUCKING SUCKS???

And can we all boycott autoformat??


I hope Star Office (http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/) takes off eventually and gives M$ a run for their money.

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[Reephdweller]

do you know how to make a graph at all? If not, just highlight the data and on the menu above look for a symbol that looks like a bar graph. click on this to get the type of graph you need. I here you can manipulate the data.


That should work, though I find a lot of times for some reason that it don't.

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[TooCute]

do you know how to make a graph at all? If not, just highlight the data and on the menu above look for a symbol that looks like a bar graph. click on this to get the type of graph you need. I here you can manipulate the data.


That should work, though I find a lot of times for some reason that it don't.

Probably because excel is stupid. Half the time when it open up the little chart wizard and you tell it what type of graph you want, it will not correctly pick which data represents your x and y values. In the Chart Source data page you need to click on the "series" tab at the top and tell it which values are your x values and which are your y's in the appropriate box. This is also the easiest (I don't know if it is it's the way I do it) way to plot multiple series on a single graph.

And by the way, though I'm turning this into a watch me spew about my idiotic trials and tribulations with excel thread, what I said earlier while it almost worked did not entirely work. It plots the points correctly but I cna't get it to link them with lines. It will not extrapolate across gaps in the x-axis, only draw little line segment for dates where I took measurement on adjacent days. I'm about ready to say fuck it and just draw the line segments in by hand.

Well I'm meeting with my advisor sometime probably in the early afternoon tomorrow, so if anyone wants to chime in, tool on me for being an idiot with excel, etc., before then I'd be much obliged.

After that, well, I'm off to Costa Rica for a week so I couldn't care less. :p
(apparently staying up late working does weird things to my posting style. can someone please say something ignorant so I can make them feel stupid for it, please, so I can feel like things are normal again?)

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[zoom2457]

To answer your first question: turn off the autoformatting. Format the cells manually. That should help.

My other suggestion is to stop working on it for a few minutes. Then go back to it. Sometimes looking at it from a fresh perspective is all it takes.

My other suggestion would be to plan out what kind of chart or graph you need before you put in your data.

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[TooCute]

I know what kind of chart I need, I know what it needs to do... it just won't do it (draw in line segments between data points that have "missing" data points in between them).

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[zoom2457]

My other suggestion would be to plan out what kind of chart or graph you need before you put in your data.


nevermind...

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[jeffdwright2001]

For the line segment issue, are you using a "line chart" or a "scatter chart". scatter charts will fill in all the gaps (even giving you curves if you need them).


The Time-Scale axis is a very handy axis to use, because it allows more scaling flexibility than even an XY Scatter chart value axis. For example, you can place axis ticks at the first day of each month, and the ticks will be closer for a 30-day month than for a 31-day month.

Unfortunately, the Time-Scale axis behaves more like a Date-Scale axis. Excel treats date and time values as a whole number signifying the day plus a decimal fraction indicating the fraction of a day since midnight. The Time-Scale axis only interprets the whole number part of the X value, or the date.

Here's a good webpage that covers different charts and formatting in good detail (http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=190)

[TooCute]

For the line segment issue, are you using a "line chart" or a "scatter chart". scatter charts will fill in all the gaps (even giving you curves if you need them).

It doen't want to do it for me :(

But I'll check out that site.

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[Jennitalia]

click on cells format and then custom. Highlight where it says general and you should be type in the date in whatever format you need.

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[TooCute]

Thanks Jenni - but the point was that that wasn't working hence the question. In any case, I solved my problem... by copying all my data into an excel file on my laptop and doing exactly the same thing I was doing. Who the hell knows why that worked. Probably becaue my work laptop is running OS 9 (OS 9.0.2 for that matter (!)) for assorted reasons and OS 9 is pretty mush stupid and sucky? Whatever. Problem solved, I can get some sleep now.

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[furie]

I've used Excel almost everyday for 7 years, and I'm still not comfortable using it.


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[sr71blackbird]

I want to know about the mud and the life in it. What were you tabulating? How much growth takes place over a period of time under certain conditions? Seeing that its spring, are you looking into seeing how and what things grow after the cold winter?

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[SatCam]

Problem solved:
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[A.J.]

I've used Excel almost everyday for 7 years, and I'm still not comfortable using it.

Me too.

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[stickyfingers]

So how the fuck do I get it to stay as a number formatted cell after I've turned it into a number formatted cell?


1) Highlight area (column, row, whatever)
2) (click) Format --- Cells ---- Number (its a tab) ----- Text

(will save it exactly as you type it)



Me too.


Me three.



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This message was edited by stickyfingers on 6-18-04 @ 10:01 AM

[BrownTown]

First the not as stupid (and not as crucial) one: stupid autoformatting. any number it thinks is a date, it turns into a date. If I got to subsequently turn it into a number by changing the formatting of the cell or the column, it gets changed to a big number thta wasn't the on I initially put in. After I've hanged the formatting to number if I go and put the original number it turned into a date back in, it changes back to stupid date formatting. So how the fuck do I get it to stay as a number formatted cell after I've turned it into a number formatted cell?

1. Make sure you're formatting the cell for the proper data. Since you're talking about it automatically switching to date format, I'm thinking you're dealing with fractions. "Number" is not the appropriate cell category designation for fractions, as it will always see / to mean 'divided by'. There is actually a "Fraction" category you should be using if that's what you're entering.
2. Make sure the cell is formatted before entering the data. Changing the formatting of a cell that's already been populated can sometimes corrupt the existing data.
3. If the data being entered is not going to be part of a calculation, you can always preface it with a single quote ' , to have it appear in the spreadsheet exactly as you type it in.

If none of these 3 things help, feel free to PM me with more specifics and I'll help if I can.

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[BrownTown]

I guess I should've read the whole thread an realized the problem was resolved before responding, huh?

I got a letter from the army so I think that I'll enlist. I'm not brave or proud of nothing I just want to kill something.