Line chart shows repeating values and table has dark background

If I'm right, I can't explain how, but I think I can explain the what.

This looks to me like you have four series on your chart. You didn't include the row/column numbers, but I'm going to assume for the purposes of this discussion that '10-Jul' is cell A1

So your four series are:

A2:D2

A3:D3

A4:D4

C2:D2

In other words, you're plotting A2:D2, then also plotting C2:D2 which get appended to the end of the series on the same row. That also explains why it's in a darker color - it's a second series on the same row.

Select your Chart and click the Edit Data References button that appears below. Then you should be able to delete the extraneous series.

Thanks Camelot,

That seems to be a logical explanation, so I tried to delete the C2:D2 plot, but had no success. However, at the very bottom left of my screenshot (below), where it says 'Plot Rows as Series', I clicked on this and chose 'Plot Columns as Series' to see what would happen. It then proceeded to re-plot the data into 'Columns as Series', which created a pyramid shape of multi-coloured lines. It meant nothing to me, so I changed back to 'Plot Rows as Series' and guess what: the attached screenshot is what appeared, without the duplicated lines and points on the chart. By experimentation I had thus managed to delete the unwanted repeated points on the chart, and had also eliminated the darker blue colour for 10-Sep and 10-Oct. I've now achieved what I needed to, but I haven't resolved the technical details of what I've done. That's still a mystery!

Thanks so much Camelot, for your suggestions that got me going along a logical path.

Peterpatter.

Hi PeterPatter,

When I have a graph that is misbehaving, rather than struggle to fix it, I delete it and start afresh. Like your approach, it "cleans out the cobwebs".

Regards,

Ian.

Hi peterpatter,

peterpatter wrote:

the central blue line repeats itself at the end with Sep and Oct values appearing twice. Also, the values for 10-Sep and 10-Oct are shown in the table with a darker blue background.

Please help, as I'm really puzzled.

I am also really puzzled. It may help us to see a screen shot of your table with (if possible) column letters and row numbers; and a screen shot of your graph showing the whole X axis and the values on the Y axis.

Looking forward to more information,

Regards Ian.

Hi Yellowbox,

I'm still puzzled, but if you read my response to Camelot, you'll see what I did to eliminate the unwanted points on the chart. Removing those points also removed the darker blue colour from the table. I'm still unsure as to what caused the solution. It seem to be rather like re-booting the computer when you have a niggling problem.

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Peterpatter.

> I've now achieved what I needed to, but I haven't resolved the technical details of what I've done.

I stand by my original statement: "If I'm right, I can't explain how, but I think I can explain the what" 😀

I can't think of what hoops you'd have to jump through to get a second overlapping series like this added to a chart... ordinarily you select the data to chart and click go, and there's no way to select a range of cells twice...

It is possible to use 'Edit Data References' to move a range after the fact (e.g. you have a series A1:A10 that you want to move to B1:B10, or A2:A11), so my second thought was that it was a different range that was somehow shifted to overlap, but you still should be allowed to overlap ranges...

So I'm still confused how you got it into this state, but glad I could point you in the right direction for a fix.