ANSWERED: controlling y-axis scaling?

[GemstoneArtist]

On my chart, y-axis are dates.
If I check “auto” for “minimum” for scaling, calc pads the left end of my chart by some amount that it seems to calculate based on the amount of data - but always wastes a bunch of chart real estate doing so. If I change some of the data to larger or smaller numbers, the chart scales - still wasting space:

and different data:

I can uncheck “automatic”, but then have to manually edit the axis on the chart if my date range changes. That’s pretty clunky…

I’m looking for a setting that will tell calc to stop padding the date range and just always begin with the lowest date.

Alternately, if I could somehow tell calc the specific date to use - perhaps by referencing a particular cell?

Hopefully, someone knows the trick?

Thanks for helping.testing.ods

[Zizi64]

Please ulpoad your ODF type sample file here. Edit your question, and you will find the attachment icon.

[GemstoneArtist]

Thank you Zizi64. I have attached the file.

[Zizi64]

There is not any scalable numeric values on the axis Y. There are only textual categories.

Adjust dinamically the data range of the chart. You can do it manually or by some user defined macro.

[GemstoneArtist]

The purpose of asking the question was to receive help.
This answer contains zero help.
Thank you for your time.
Hopefully, someone will actually help me.

[Zizi64]

Here is my answer again:

Adjust dinamically the data range of the chart. You can do it manually or by some user defined macro.

Read: use only a partial range what contain valid data. Then it will be appeared only the non empty lines on the chart.

[GemstoneArtist]

You are telling me to just do the thing I am asking HOW to do.
If I knew HOW to do it I would not have asked the question.

[Zizi64]

“You are telling me to just do the thing I am asking HOW to do.”

The specific answer was: “Manually or by a macro”.

I suppose that you_can adjust the data range reference of your chart manually. You must adjust it in every case, when you fill-in an empty row. Now, the chart shows you the empty lines too. There is the reason, why is the wasted space is present under the valid lines.

Teaching the full macro programming knowledge: There is not enough place in a simple answer for it. I must know what you know about the macro programming…

[GemstoneArtist]

I just inserted a column for “starting day number” that calculates number of days from the starting date - and used that instead of the “start date” column.

Then, I unchecked “automatic” scaling for start, and set to zero.

This fixes the obnoxious auto-padding thing that Calc was doing.

Sadly, now I have “day number” for the Y axis of my chart rather than what I wanted “starting date”.

And, I am unable to figure out how to add that as the labels for the Y axis, as adding “start date” in the data set reintroduces the padding issue and stacks the columns in a way that’s very un-useful.

No apparent way to do a sideways stacked chart that also includes unstacked bars or lines, etc - to introduce the secondary Y without trashing the desired output.

Unless someone offers a ready solution, I’m just going to live with the day numbers rather than dates.

[LeroyG]

You can’t use the dates as data for this chart. You will need to add an auxiliary column.

See my answer to another question: Gantt type spreadsheet

And the sample file adapted to your question.

Tested with LibreOffice 7.0.6.2 (x64); OS: Windows 10.0.

EDIT: You posted your partial answer while I was writting mine. You will need to add a secondary Y axis with the dates as data, and reverse direction in X axis.

EDIT 2: And unmark Show label (or similar in the Label tab) for the principal X axis.

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[GemstoneArtist]

Thank you LeroyG.
A most excellent, detailed, helpful response!

What I would like is if the dates on the chart populated the min and max automatically according to the contents of the spreadsheet. I can’t find a way to do that.

This is the one snag between “very workable” and exactly what I want. If there’s an easy way to do that, maybe you can reply. If not, you already have my gratitude. Thank you so much.

[LeroyG]

I tested a few options; but just now, I can’t find a way to do this.