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Excel Graph - How can I graph time-series data with uneven measurement in format (other than x-y scatter)?

By Emma Martinez

I'm trying to chart some vital sign measurements but don't want to use an x-y scatter... my issue is that the measurements were not taken at even intervals (not even close) and were taken multiple times a day. An X-Y scatter allows me to correctly represent the time axis but I want to use area/column charts but the smallest unit for their time axis is "day". Ideally, I'd like to use combination charts to show the correlation/lack of correlation between things like % Oxygen Saturation as line/xy-scatter with Supplemental O2 flow rate as an area chart or be able to show Systolic/Diastolic values as a stacked column with MAP pressure as a line/xy-scatter.

For Instance...

Example Chart of BP Range and MAP DUMMY DATA

Dummy Data Even Time Interval

The time interval between measurements ranges anywhere from 10 min to 6 hours apart and they span 3 days. Any Ideas?

I'm using Office 365 so I think that's Excel 2016.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

1 Answer

You can use a scatter chart for your data, as I demonstrate below.

Insert a scatter chart with Diastolic and MAP (Chart 1).

Add error bars to the Diastolic series (Chart 2).

Delete the horizontal error bars (Chart 3).

Modify the vertical error bars to use positive values only, and select the Custom option for Error Amount, click Specify Value to pop up the tiny dialog, and for Positive select the range containing Sys-Dias values, and for Negative, enter ={0} (Chart 4).

Format the error bars to use no cap, and choose a line color and thickness; I used 9 points (Chart 5).

Format the Diastolic series so it uses no lines and no markers, and remove the legend (Chart 6).

enter image description here

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