Coloring the points of an excel chart based on another cell

Question

I would like to graphically represent how some real valued data has been discretized/binned. I have an array of real numbers ranging from 1 to 35. For each value, I have a corresponding natural number in the range of -2 to 19. I would like to show all of the real numbers on a number line colored based on which natural number corresponds to each one. Is this possible in excel? If not is there something else I can use to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Since you have no y-axis, here's how I would do this: Create an Excel spreadsheet with the numbers 1-35 in Column A, and with the numbers -2 to 19 along the top of Row 1.

In each intersection of the right number with the right color value, enter a 0.

Graph this range, using a line chart with point markers. You will end up with various points along the x-axis, with different colors and shapes, according to the distribution in your table. Now you should completely remove the y-axis (no line, no fill, no labels, no ticks), gridlines, and legend.

Finally, I would edit the various data series, by removing the lines (leaving the markers), and setting all the line markers to use the same shape, with only the colors differing.

Answer 2

You can fudge conditional formatting in Excel charts. Check out the "Conditionally Formatted Line Chart" example in this tutorial:

Conditional Formatting of Excel Charts