HELP - surface plots with missing data (How?)

[Takeshi]

Hi All,

I have a table of data (height ->x, age ->y, weight -> z). The data is
placed into a table by a macro as ff:

Rows = Height, Columns = Age, and the cell value is the average of all
samples having the same age and height. However, some of these cells are
empty. When I construct a 3D surface plot from the data, I get nasty
spikes as a result of the missing data, (it appears a zero is plotted in
place of missing values). I have tried everything I can think of -
changing the range (and axis) of the individual series for e.g., but no
dice...


The table looks something like this:

5 10 15 20
1 2 x 4 7.5
2 x 6 9 x
3 5 7 10 x

Where x is a missing value (i.e. empty cell).


Any help/suggestions will be much appreciated.


MTIA

 

[Jon Peltier]

Takeshi -

You're stuck. Surface charts treat blanks, text, error values as zeroes
in the data (so do Area charts, but most other types give the option of
skipping blanks, and most just draw a line over the special #N/A error.

Could you make your macro insert a value into the otherwise blank cells?
Something like the average of the surrounding cells might be sufficient.

- Jon

 

[Takeshi]

Thanks Jon, atleast I know it's not me just being dumb ! ;-)

 

[Jon Peltier]

Sometimes Excel makes all of us feel dumb!

- Jon