Help me create a scatterplot that isn't ugly and bad
February 27, 2011 4:51 PM Subscribe
Better-looking scatterplot using data from an OpenOffice calc spreadsheet?
I've got over 4000 rows of data in a spreadsheet and wanted to try some different graphs to show any correlations it may have.
I opened the spreadsheet in Open Office, and tried making a scatterplot chart using two columns. But the default "plot" on the scatterplot is a 10x10 square, which is really big for the number of plots I want on the graph. And I couldn't find any way to change the size of those to something smaller.
Are there a bunch of settings in Open Office I'm missing? Or is there a different program I should use that is devoted to making graphs that could import something like a .csv file?
Ideally, I think I want tiny dots for plots, possibly with some semi-transparency, to make sure I can still visually tell very dense from extremely dense. Bonus points if I can set colours for the dots based on a category from a third column of data.
I've got over 4000 rows of data in a spreadsheet and wanted to try some different graphs to show any correlations it may have.
I opened the spreadsheet in Open Office, and tried making a scatterplot chart using two columns. But the default "plot" on the scatterplot is a 10x10 square, which is really big for the number of plots I want on the graph. And I couldn't find any way to change the size of those to something smaller.
Are there a bunch of settings in Open Office I'm missing? Or is there a different program I should use that is devoted to making graphs that could import something like a .csv file?
Ideally, I think I want tiny dots for plots, possibly with some semi-transparency, to make sure I can still visually tell very dense from extremely dense. Bonus points if I can set colours for the dots based on a category from a third column of data.
I should add that the visualization capacities of Office and its clones are notoriously bad. You can also try Tableau Public but I don't have personal experience, so I can't speak to its quality.
posted by proj at 5:04 PM on February 27, 2011
posted by proj at 5:04 PM on February 27, 2011
Tableau looks really nice, and I've recommended it before. GGobi is also pretty well developed. If you're interested in getting deep into data, I like this book for plotting data in R, which has excellent data manipulation and analysis capabilities.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:56 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:56 AM on February 28, 2011
Oh, another entry for "advanced R graphics" is ggplot2. I've not used it, but people tell me that I ought, and that I am a bad person for using the base graphics package.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 7:00 AM on February 28, 2011
posted by a robot made out of meat at 7:00 AM on February 28, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by proj at 5:03 PM on February 27, 2011