Lines on line chart are too close together, appearing as a single line

[Equanimity]

Hello Everyone,

I have the following data:

1,562,500 <tbody> </tbody>	1,150,431 <tbody> </tbody>	1,096,033 <tbody> </tbody>	1,054,040 <tbody> </tbody>	1,018,854 <tbody> </tbody>	989,181 <tbody> </tbody>	963,960 <tbody> </tbody>	942,492 <tbody> </tbody>
1,562,500 <tbody> </tbody>	1,150,180 <tbody> </tbody>	1,095,921 <tbody> </tbody>	1,053,916 <tbody> </tbody>	1,018,724 <tbody> </tbody>	989,048 <tbody> </tbody>	963,830 <tbody> </tbody>	942,365 <tbody> </tbody>
1,562,500 <tbody> </tbody>	1,150,682 <tbody> </tbody>	1,096,144 <tbody> </tbody>	1,054,165 <tbody> </tbody>	1,018,984 <tbody> </tbody>	989,313 <tbody> </tbody>	964,090 <tbody> </tbody>	942,618 <tbody> </tbody>

<tbody>
</tbody>

The columns represent years, from 1 to 8. The rows represent the following:

Row 1: sample mean
Row 2: lower bracket of 95% confidence interval
Row 3: upper bracket of 95% confidence interval

I only see a single line when I try to plot this data using the "line" chart (i.e. the 3 lines are on top of one another). I tried to change the minimum and maximum to 900,000 and 1,600,000, but this didn't seem to help.

Is there a way that I can plot this data such that I can see the 3 lines (i.e. the mean, lower value and upper value) on the plot?

Thanks!
Sarah

 

[thisoldman]

It's the data! The values you want to plot are just too close in values.

You have a maximum difference between your confidence levels and your mean of only 251. The difference between the maximum plotted point to the minimum point is 620,135. No matter what vertical scale you use, a difference of 250 in 620,000, roughly 1 part in 2500, is darn difficult to see. It's like trying to measure a difference of one foot using a half-mile long ruler. You would have to enlarge your chart, say from 3x5 inches, to around 12x15 feet to show any gap, anywhere, between the three lines.

 

[cyrilbrd]

As explained quite eloquently by thisoldman your dataset is quite tight.
Change from line to clustered column to see clearly the correlation.

 

[Equanimity]

Thank you thisoldman and cyrilbrd !

 

[cyrilbrd]

Most welcome, thanks for the reply.