Data sorting question in Excel graphs

[Kermit power]

Hi all,

I'm trying to display data for a number of businesses from a table in Excel in graph format - one graph for each of about a dozen columns.

The content of each column is a numerical value, and I'm just building simple bar graphs showing the values from biggest to smallest for each column.

Does anyone know if there is a way to re-sort the data in each individual graph to do this, or am I going to have to copy & paste the data for each graph?

[Doofus]

Can't you just sort the columns in the table?

[bigpriest]

Hopefully the answer is no. Please don't let my team know there might be a way of sorting charts independently of their data source. I can feel a headache coming on.

[CloudStuff]

Sort by which data source / value? Just make the chart a slave of the data. Your life will be easier.

[Kermit power]

bigpriest said:

Hopefully the answer is no. Please don't let my team know there might be a way of sorting charts independently of their data source. I can feel a headache coming on.

I don't want to change any of the data, I just want to display it differently.

I have the business names in column A in alphabetical order. In columns B to P, I have the data points.

In graph 1, I want to show a graph with just company turnover in it, whereas in graph 2, I want to just show profit.

You'd think you could point a chart at a dataset and tell it in the chart what to sort the data on, as then you could have multiple charts against the same dataset which would only change if you update the data in that set. This seems far more logical than seemingly having to copy all the data for each chart, and then having to update multiple sets of data.

[bigpriest]

Kermit power said:

bigpriest said:

Hopefully the answer is no. Please don't let my team know there might be a way of sorting charts independently of their data source. I can feel a headache coming on.

I don't want to change any of the data, I just want to display it differently.

I have the business names in column A in alphabetical order. In columns B to P, I have the data points.

In graph 1, I want to show a graph with just company turnover in it, whereas in graph 2, I want to just show profit.

You'd think you could point a chart at a dataset and tell it in the chart what to sort the data on, as then you could have multiple charts against the same dataset which would only change if you update the data in that set. This seems far more logical than seemingly having to copy all the data for each chart, and then having to update multiple sets of data.

With you - have you tried a Pivot Chart instead? Gives you the option of selecting fields, you can create more than one pivot chart for a data source.

[paulrockliffe]

Right click the chart, choose "Select Data" and you can reorder the fields in there to set a custom sort.

If you want something properly bespoke, manage the data in Power Pivot, create a calculated column that is your sort order and you can can apply that column as the sort column for your data column. Then a Pivot Chart connected to the Power Pivot Data Model will default to sorting in that order.