Alberto,
(1) is there any way to mix lines and columns in a graphic?
Yes. Fortunately, it's one of Excel's built-in custom chart types.
It's so "not-custom" that the description of the chart begins
"Classic combination chart..."
Here's how: From the "Insert" menu, choose "Chart..."
Select the "Custom Types" tab, scroll down the "Chart type:"
list and select one of "Line - Column" or "Line - Column on 2nd Axis"
(or whatever appears after the "2", because it's cut off in the
dialog on my Mac...).
That's what I think you're asking for: a chart that has columns for
one data series and a line for another series.
This might be helpful:
"Create Multiple Combination Charts in Excel"
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=211
(2) is there any intelligent way to plot only meaningful values? For
example, if I am plotting densities (A1:A10 is volume, B1:B10 is mass,
C1:C10 is density, but not all of them have decent values: B7:B10 or
maybe B8:B10 are zeroes), I would like to restrict the plot to numbers
that are not zero/zero.
This one's equally easy, and, Doug Pensinger's no-doubt excellent
advice notwithstanding, doesn't even require that you write a macro.
Create a new column next to your funky column with the following formula
in every cell:
=IF(C2=0,NA(),C2)
(where "C2" is the a cell in the column that may contain zero values
that you want to replace).
A line chart that crosses the NA cells will just skip over them,
something like this:
+-------------------------------+
4 -| |
| *-------* * |
3 -| /. .\ / |
| / . . \ / |
2 -| / . . \ / |
| *---* . . * |
1 -| V |
+---+---+---+---*---+---+---+---+
' ' ' ' ' ' '
a b c d e f g
Where the missing data is in row 'd', of course. (The dotted line
forming the big ugly V in the middle is what you'd get with your
raw data.) For the sake of clarity, and because my obsessive-
compulsive disorder is relatively under control tonight, I didn't
include the bars on the ASCII version of the chart above, nor the
legend. I hope you can handle that :-).
Alberto "I hate M$ and all the crap it sells" Monteiro
Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am no fan of Microsoft
operating systems or business practices: I worked for Apple for
seven years and Sun for three.
On the other hand, I have been known to say that Excel may be the
best piece of general-purpose software ever created by humans.
Basically, If I can't figure out how to do something in Excel, I
assume that it's because I can't figure out how to do something in
Excel, it's probably not because Excel can't do it.
Dave
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