Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 121701
x-axis labelled randomly instead of using data provided in spreadsheet
Last modified: 2017-05-20 10:01:58 UTC
I want to do something extremely simple: create a chart based on 2 columns: dates + corresponding values. I have over 2 years of data though not all days are present. I want the dates to appear on the x-axis, but not all days, because then it becomes messy. The most straightforward and easy thing to do for calc would be to do this right straight away without any interference from me. I.e.: use date from the indicated column as label, if too much then leave some out at equal intervals. Unfortunately, someone has spent quite some effort to avoid this. So what does calc do? depending on settings: - randomly pick very few days to display. Not starting with the first, nor finishing with the last, and no regular intervals. - completely ignore the dates, and just label the number of the cells, although calc has been specifically told to use the content of the column as x-axis. I suppose this must have been working at some point in time, so please! revert it back to when it actually worked!
Please attach a document which shows the problem. Please make sure you use the correct chart type. Type 'line' as category chart can be easily confused with line variant of an XY-chart.
Created attachment 80191 [details] spreadsheet with incorrect chart
somehow adding an attachment made my comment disappear. Anyway: I've used both line and the line variant of XY-chart. Line places random labels at the x-axis, XY-chart-line ignores the column that contains the labels. The attachment shows the incorrect chart resulting from XY-chart.
Both charts have errors. The xy-chart has not set the x-values; the line chart has not set the category. Double-click the chart and then select 'Data Ranges' from the context menu. Then go to tab 'Data Series' and correct the error. Another error is, that the data starts in row 4 but the ranges, which you specify, start in row 2. If the date category is not detected as date in case of the line chart, set it manually to date in the properties of the x-axis. Feel free to reopen the bug, if you still see errors in the corrected charts and attach again an example.
Chart has been build from incomplete data ranges.
thanks for your time and effort! XY-chart: the x values are given in column A. Calc "knows" this because it selects the correct cells. Furthermore, in "data labels" it has the correct cells to take the labels, yet ignores them when creating labels. The only thing empty there is "X-values". I've now pointed that to the cells to look in, but now it invents it's own date range, starting with 12/30/99 and ending with 08/22/01. Ignoring my data is one thing, but inventing its own data?! I don't know what you mean by specifying the ranges. I haven't specified any, nor is that necessary: calc does that and the chart itself is created correctly. It's just the labels that are incorrect. They should simply be created according to the data used to plot the chart. In any case, I've told calc to use the columns as of cell 4 instead of 2. Doesn't make any difference. Line: I don't know why the categories are empty now, they were there before. In any case, I've now given it a range and now it uses many dates, so it becomes messy. After tilting it 90 degrees it looks a bit better, but far from perfect. Using scale would make it even better, but calc doesn't let me do that. I'm reopening the bug, because there are still errors in how calc handles the charts: XY-chart: - calc should have understood before and should understand now where to take the labels from. - calc should not invent data out of thin air. Line: - calc should let me scale the x-axis, or improve the labels in some other way.
Created attachment 80192 [details] adjusted spreadsheet/chart
Solved the problem by asking a friend to use the same data in excel. Within 5 minutes excel produced the correct result.
Attachment 80192 [details] looks OK AOO410m1(Build:9750) - Rev. 1571426 2014-02-25_04:10:58 - Rev. 1571555 Debian