Datalog Graph help..

[Deldran]

Originally Posted by phate Pivot Charts are MUCH easier to use. I've been bitching about how people should learn how to graph, so I'm going to make a short tutorial. Edit: I just wrote this... I do lots of data analysis, besides datalogs from my car, so 'pivoting' data becomes very important and it saves a ton of time. Since the datalogs come in a nice table form, we can easily chart these against time, to see what our cars are doing. I log with the AP, but this applies to just about anything in table form. 1) Open your log with Excel 2007. If you want to save this work, you will need to save it as a .xlsx 2)Since some of the fields are huge compared to others (like RPM), I add a couple more columns to scale these down. I usually divide RPM by 100 and Calc'd Load by 10, for example. Name these fields something that is easily identified and is not the same as other field names. [Field names are the column headers.] Here's a screenshot of my new fields and the formula. It just references the original column, and divides by whatever number you feel like. Scaling by a factor of 10 is nice and multiple y-axis values can be confusing. 3) After you have the extra columns fixed up, click into one cell in your data table, go to the 'Insert' tab on the Excel Ribbon. There is a button on the far left that says 'Pivot Table'. Click the down arrow just below it, and select 'Pivot Chart'. Here's a screenshot of the button in the upper left. 4) Once you click 'Pivot Chart', you will get a dialog box asking you about the data set (which should contain your entire data table). This will also give you the option to insert the pivot chart onto the same worksheet, or a new worksheet. I prefer working from a new worksheet. Click 'OK' if everything looks right. 5) You now have a blank pivot chart on a new worksheet! On the right side of the worksheet, you should have two extra windows, within the worksheet: Pivot Chart Filter Pane, and Pivot Table Field List. Get rid of the pivot chart filter pane (the second window, next to your pivot table field list); just click the x in that window. You won't be using this, and it just covers up some nice chart area. Here's a screenshot of the newly inserted pivot chart: 6) Now that we have the extra bs out of there, we can start setting up the chart that we will actually use. At this point, you can resize the chart pane. As you add more things to the chart area, excel will resize the pane to random sizes, so I wait until I have a few things in there. The first thing you want to do is set the x-axis to be 'Time'. Simply grab 'Time' from the list on the right (this is your field list), and drag it into the bottom left area labeled "Axis Fields (Categories)". Here's a screenshot with 'Time' added to the 'Axis Fields' box: 7) Now we can chart stuff!!! Anything that you want to see in the chart pane, (that is: A graphical representation), just drag it into the 'Values' Box in the lower right corner. You can have any number of items in there, but things can get cluttered. As soon as you drag and drop it in, it will be graphed in the pane. Here's a screenshot of the default charting type: 8) But you say, phate! WTF is all that blue crap going on, I can't see whats going on with other things in the chart! Not to worry, we can change the chart type with a couple of clicks. When you are clicked in the chart, you get a few extra buttons on the ribbon under 'Pivot Chart Tools'. If you click on the 'Design' tab, there is a button to the far left labeled 'Change Chart Type'. Click this. Screenshot of the button: 9) The 'Change Chart Type' button will bring up a fun dialog box with numerous chart types. I just use the first 'Line' chart, but you can play with all of the others. Many of them have no value for what we are trying to do, here, though. Here's a screenshot: 10) You should now have pretty, colored lines going all over the place. You can quickly see why scaling becomes important. Here's a screenshot of the finished product: A few quick tips: -Scaling things in factors of 10 makes things EASY. I also recommend multiplying KR by 10, as it is sometimes hard to see the .35's and .7's. -If you have lots of data that doesn't matter (ie, you logged for 20 minutes of cruising before you went WOT), you can filter ANY of the selected fields by clicking on the down arrow next to the field name in the field list. Your selected fields will be bolded, and you will need to click the arrow to bring up the 'filter' list. Its pretty straight forward from there. -If you want to print a chart, for whatever reason, you must activate the chart by clicking into it. If you are clicked into a cell in the worksheet, it will mess up the printing.

@Raider;
Any way we could get this pulled out and a new thread made and maybe even sticky this?
This is very useful for ppl who arnt to excel savy use it all the time now. Kinda hard to find so thought might be a good idea to make it easier to read.
New thread so maybe people can update instructions for newer versions of excel or maybe even elaborate more.