Excel line chart doesn't look right [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21682040

  •  09-10-2022
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Question

I need to create a line chart from some tabular data. The chart should show how weather (e.g. temperature) changes with time. But for some reason the result looks strange (I have attached a picture). Also, the chart displays hour part of the datetime as 0.

enter image description here

Could you please help. Thanks.

Addition: The time is in format Date of type "3/14/01 13:30"

I also tried a Scatter, and the result looks better, but datetime is weird, and it is missing hours: enter image description here

Was it helpful?

Solution

Plotted as Scatter with Smooth Lines:

SO21682040 first example

Format the x-axis Major unit to Fixed 0.125 to show 3-hourly intervals (any more detail and the chart would be very cluttered).

@Jon Peltier (who knows all there is to now about Excel charts and MORE) has made the point that smooth lines may be misleading. (Inadvertently I provided an example of just that here!) So a slightly simplified version with straight lines for the sake of a better answer for the OP and also for comparison:

SO21682040 second example

with straight and smooth overlaid:

SO21682040 third example

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