Using formula as input for Excel Chart

Question

I have a plugin to Excel which allows me to retrieve data and return it to the sheet as an array formula.

I'd like this plugin to drive charts directly.

Basically if I have the formula

=PLGIN("test")

it might return:

1/1/2013     1
1/2/2013     6
1/3/2013     7

etc so an array of two columns with a variable number of rows.

I'd just like to graph this information without having to pull it down into cells first for the obvious benefit that as the array size changes I'd like the graph to represent the whole array rather than just the bit that's displayed in the sheet without having to add a new row to the array every time I add a new row to the data.

I've tried setting the formula as a named range (which works beautifully) but I can't set this named range to be the data set for the chart as Excel crashes.

Answer 1

If you want a dynamic chart you don't want to use array formulas. It is reasonably easy to make dynamic charts from named ranges:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/build-dynamic-charts-in-excel/