Year over Year (monthly) comparisons when Monthly Values are in a single Column

[Dave K]

Is there a best method of showing Year over Year chart comparisons
(data displayed by Month) when the monthly data points are displayed
in a single column?

Thanks for any suggestions or examples.

Data is displayed like this:

201011 Value
201010 Value
201009 Value
Etc....

[joeu2004]

On Apr 22, 1:30 pm, Dave K <fred.sher...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there a best method of showing Year over Year chart
> comparisons (data displayed by Month) when the monthly
> data points are displayed in a single column?

[....]

> Data is displayed like this:
> 201011   Value
> 201010   Value
> 201009   Value
> Etc....

There are so many omissions in your question, I don't know if anyone
can answer it unless they get lucky with wild-a.s.s guesses.

First, what do you mean by "comparison"? I would guess %difference.

Second, are there gaps in your dates? If not, then if your dates are
in A1:A1200 and your values are in B1:B1200, the year-over-year
%difference is =A1/A13-1 in C1, which you can copy down column C.

As for charting, note that your dates are in descending. I would
prefer to see a chart in ascending oder. So __before__ you create the
formulas in column C, I would sort columns A:B in __ascending__ order
of column A. In that case, you probably want to compute %difference
with =A13/A1-1 starting in C13, which you can copy down column C.

Third, does that address your question; or is your question about how
to use the chart the data in column C using the Chart Wizard (hint!)?

However, finally, if there are gaps in your dates, the "best" solution
depends on whether the dates displayed in column A are actually stored
as Excel dates and displayed with the format Custom yyyymm. If not,
how are those dates stored: as text or as numbers? And would you be
willing to change the date representation to Excel dates, using the
Custom format to retain their current appearance?

[joeu2004]

On Apr 22, 2:39 pm, I <joeu2...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> As for charting, note that your dates are in descending.
> I would prefer to see a chart in ascending oder.  So
> __before__ you create the formulas in column C, I would
> sort columns A:B in __ascending__ order of column A.

I just saw your companion posting at
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.excel/browse_frm/thread/de19d3e9ab7978b3#
.

(Bad idea to split related question that way.)

If my suggestion for fixing the Y-axis after selecting "Values in
reverse order" for the X-axis works, there is no need to sort the
actual data.