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So I have data like:

Cost    20  30  10   5
Rating   5   3   2   5

I want to make a chart of rating vs. cost, so the points would be 

[(5,20), (3,30), (2,10), (5,5)]

I can't seem to get excel to do anything other than put the two rows as independent series. Am I missing something, or I do have to pivot the data somehow to make it do that?

(Actually, I'm using an old-ish version of Numbers.app on OS X, but I'm hoping the concept will be the same. I have access to excel if need be.)

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Select the two rows and do a scatterplot which I think is called an XY plot in Excel (sorry, I run a Linux machine, so I do not have Excel installed).

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  • $\begingroup$ I had to munge the data so it was in columns rather than rows, but that's on it's way to working. Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – sprugman
    Commented Dec 19, 2010 at 16:26
  • $\begingroup$ @sprugman: There should be a setting to choose wether data is in columns or rows $\endgroup$
    – nico
    Commented Dec 19, 2010 at 16:39
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    $\begingroup$ No setting is needed: Select the range of cells in the two rows, invoke the Chart Wizard, specify "XY (Scatter)", and you have it. $\endgroup$
    – whuber ♦
    Commented Dec 19, 2010 at 17:02
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber: I remember to be able to select rows or columns (well, at least OpenOffice has that option). Of course Excel will choose automagically the longest direction, but that's not always what you want! :) $\endgroup$
    – nico
    Commented Dec 19, 2010 at 17:33
  • $\begingroup$ Numbers is pretty limited (at least the ~08 version I was using). I basically had to put the data in one row like: 5, 20, 3, 30, 2, 10, 5, 5. It was dumb, but I got the result I wanted. $\endgroup$
    – sprugman
    Commented Dec 20, 2010 at 17:03

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