1.130 FAQ-718 How to Plot Multiple Blocks of Data from Same Column as Separate Data Plots?

Last Update: 7/12/2018

There are multiple ways to do this depending upon the size of the blocks of data.

Ctrl+Select Multiple Ranges

You can hold the CTRL key and make multiple range selections within a single column and then plot them.

Plot Multi-Block in Same Column.gif

Note: If the data is large, it can be tedious.

Use Worksheet Query to Select Multiple Ranges by Condition

If there are some pattern in data, you can consider use Worksheet Query dialog to set condition to select multi-blocks of data and then plot. E.g. if data is separated by a row with with missing values, you can use the following method:

  1. Select Worksheet: Worksheet Query menu to bring up Worksheet Query dialog
  2. On left panel, only check data column you want to plot, e.g. Recovery.
  3. Select the column(s) you will use in Condition and move them to the right panel so an Alias is created for the column, e.g. D is alias for Drug column.
  4. In Condition box, using Alias to set condition. E.g. D!="--" (or D!="" if data is separated by blank rows)
  5. In Output:, choose Select and click OK.
  6. In worksheet, all Recovery data which correspond to no missing value in Drug column will be selected.
  7. Plot selected data.

When the desired data is selected, you can then plot it directly, for example make a box chart plot:

  1. Plot Multi-Block in Same Column blank row.gif

Note: You can also choose to mask, extract selected data or access more advanced functions in Worksheet Query.

Split Columns

In Origin 2016 and newer versions, If you want to plot every N rows, or every Nth row, you can highlight the XY column and select Worksheet: Split Columns menu to first split the data into multiple columns. then plot them.

Split columns.png

Unstack Columns

If you want to plot data based on group information on other columns, you can first unstack the data and then plot.

Unstack columns.png

Keywords:Extract, Mask, Select, Multiple Blocks, Multiple Subranges, split, unstack