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I'm taking an economics course, and for whatever reason economists create graphs with the independent variable (price) on the Y axis and not the X axis. If I only have 1 dependent variable to graph, it's pretty easy just to swap the two, but I need to create a graph with price as the independent variable on the Y axis with multiple dependent variables on the X axis. Is this possible in Numbers?

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Can you be a little bit more specific? I’m not an Economics expert :) –  Martín Marconcini Dec 1 '10 at 20:00
@Martín Typically when you graph something you'd put your independent variable, or the thing that changes, on the X axis, and the result of that change to the other variable, the dependent variable, on the Y axis. For example, if you wanted to graph population vs time, you'd put time on the X axis and population on the Y axis. Economists, unfortunately, have swapped this around and put price on the Y axis and the effect of that price on the X axis, but I can't find a way for Numbers to graph it that way. –  Kyle Cronin Dec 1 '10 at 22:18
thanks for the info :) Now… back to your graphic, you’d want to have the price be on the Y and the “four columns” on the X? –  Martín Marconcini Dec 2 '10 at 1:17
@Martín yes, exactly –  Kyle Cronin Dec 2 '10 at 1:26

2 Answers 2

You can build your own transpose function using the index command:

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The transpose cells all contain this: enter image description here

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Welcome to Ask Different! Answers on Ask Different should be more than just a link. It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info. Thanks. –  Nathan Greenstein Dec 16 '11 at 23:39

I’ve noticed a button you don’t have. What version of Numbers do you have? (I have 09)

Look at this:

alt text

That swaps the columns in the graph (exactly like you describe). I’m not really very good at Numbers.

Do you have that? One thing I’ve done, is used the price as a “column” but maybe that’s why you don’t have it?

My graphic looks awesome (sarcasm)…

(btw I hadn’t saved it and had to do it again)

alt text

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I have '09 as well. Can you post the graph you've produced? –  Kyle Cronin Dec 2 '10 at 1:51
Hm, that's not really the graph I had in mind. Thanks for trying, though I suspect that Numbers just isn't capable of what I need. –  Kyle Cronin Dec 2 '10 at 2:56
@Kyle Thank god that’s not what you were looking for :) If you try to tell me what value should be on the lines… maybe I can keep trying. I’ve saved it this time :) –  Martín Marconcini Dec 2 '10 at 3:04
@Martín something like this, only with the stuff labeled properly –  Kyle Cronin Dec 2 '10 at 3:08
@Kyle I’ll see if I can come up with something tomorrow. Sry bout that. –  Martín Marconcini Dec 2 '10 at 3:51

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