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Trying to switch the row and column data for a graph and the option is grayed out for me. How do I fix this?
You know the situation. You have a perfectly clean data set and you want to put it in a chart, so you select the rows and columns and select a chart from the Insert menu:
All the right fields look right, but Excel has gotten a case of the stupids and the chart isn’t what you wanted:
Sometimes, though, the problem is just a case of flipped data. This happens often enough that Excel has a feature to swap fields, turning columns into rows and rows into columns to fix the chart. All you have to do is select your broken chart, choose the Design menu from the Chart Tools group.
Then click on the Switch Row/Column button to right the wrongs on your beautiful chart.
That’s it! Now your chart should look nice and pretty as you intended all along. No manual data entry, and no tedious tweaking! Your final output should look like this:
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When creating a chart, the program figures out the correct way to organize the data; the program determines which to labels to assign to the horizontal axis and where to put the chart’s legend, but what if there is an error? For instance, you want the rows of the data displayed on the horizontal axis to be displayed on the vertical axis instead. So you can switch the rows to columns so that the data can demonstrate the way you want; this is done using the Switch Row/ Column button.
How to switch Rows and Columns in Excel
The Switch Row or Column feature allows the user to swap data over the axis; the data on the X-axis will move to the Y-axis. It’s a feature that transforms the data in the chart.
- Launch Microsoft Excel
- Create a chart or use an existing chart
- Click the Chart
- Click the Chart Design tab
- Click the Switch Row / Column button
- The rows are switch to column
To switch the rows and columns in an excel chart, follow the methods below.
Launch Microsoft Excel.
Create a statistical table or used an existing one.
Highlight the table.
Then go to Insert and select a Chart in the Charts group; in this tutorial, we have chosen a Bar Chart.
Once you click the Bar Chart, select the Bar Chart you want from the drop-down list.
Now that the chart is created, a Chart Design tab will appear on the menu bar.
If you have an existing chart, you can also use it.
On the tab in the Data group, click the Switch Row / Column button.
The rows are switch to columns.
We hope this tutorial helps you understand how to switch rows and columns in an Excel Chart.
Read next: How to use the DVAR function in Excel.
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If a chart that you create does not display the worksheet data on the axis that you want, you can quickly change the way that data is plotted. For example, if rows of data are displayed on the horizontal (category) axis, but you want them to be displayed on the vertical (value) axis instead, you can switch rows to columns so that the data is displayed in the chart the way that you want.
Important: To complete this procedure, you must have an existing chart. For more information about how to create a chart, see Create a chart.
When you create a chart, Microsoft Office Excel determines the axis on which the data series are plotted, based on the number of worksheet rows and columns that are included in the chart, placing the larger number on the horizontal axis.
If your data has equal rows and columns of worksheet data, Excel plots the rows of data on the vertical axis, and the columns of data on the horizontal axis. After you switch rows to columns in the chart, the columns of data are plotted on the vertical axis, and the rows of data are plotted on the horizontal axis.
However, you can quickly change the way that worksheet rows and columns are plotted in the chart by switching rows to columns or vice versa.
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Click anywhere in the chart that contains the data series that you want to plot on different axes.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
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On the Design tab, in the Data group, click Switch Row/Column.
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