Charting a mathematical equation using Excel and defined names

Pages in this article

  1. Introduction
  2. Create the Chart
  3. x-values
  4. y-values
  5. Sample Equations

Create the Chart

 Because we cannot start creating a chart without data, simply add some data to a couple of cells:

Some data for a chart

and click the chart wizard button. Make sure to select the "XY (scatter)" chart type and hit Finish.

Now define two names local to the worksheet the chart is on:

Name
Refers To
Sheet1!x
$A$12:$A$15
Sheet1!y
$B$12:$B$15

Now we need to use these two defined names in the chart's SERIES formula (click the line in the chart and then click the formula bar), currently looking like this:

The SERIES formula of a chart

(Note this shows the SERIES formula as I see it, with the semicolon as list separator.)

Edit this formula so it looks like this:

=SERIES(Sheet1!$B$8,Sheet1!x,Sheet1!y,1)

Cell B8 will contain the chart's title, so we'll put this little formula in B8:

="Charting: " & Sheet1!$B$1