2.2.3.9 Series

A series is of a set of related data points (section 2.2.3.10) that are plotted in a chart (section 2.2.3.3). In addition to specifying the data points of the series and the formatting properties of the data points, a series can also specify a series name and properties of the data label (section 2.2.3.11) and legend entries that are associated with the series.

A series is defined by a sequence of records that conforms to the SERIESFORMAT rule (section 2.1.7.20.1) specified by the chart sheet substream (section 2.1.7.20.1) ABNF that contains a SerToCrt record (section 2.4.256).

A series can either be of type included or excluded. Included series are series that are shown in the chart. Excluded series are not shown in the chart, but exist as series in the file. A series is an excluded series if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

  • The chart group (section 2.2.3.7) type of the series is bar of pie, pie, or pie of pie.

  • The series is not the first series in the chart sheet substream to be on the chart group and contain in the second sequence of records that conform to the AI rule (section 2.1.7.20.1) a BRAI record (section 2.4.29) that contains an ifmt field that specifies a formula (section 2.2.2) that equals to a row or column that is not excluded from the chart sheet.

This occurs when the chart group is of type bar of pie, pie, or pie of pie, and the chart sheet contains multiple series, because these chart group types will only display the first series of data on the chart.

All other series are included series.

The following records and rules define the significant parts of a series:

The Series record (section 2.4.252) specifies the type and size of the data in the series.

  • The four sequences of records that conform to the AI rule specify formulas. The meaning of the formulas are specified as follows:

    1. In the first sequence, the value of the formula specifies the name of the series. The SeriesText record (section 2.4.254) specifies a cache of the name of the series.

    2. In the second sequence, the value of the formula specifies:

      • A set of coordinates along the vertical value axis (section 2.2.3.6) if the series is in a bubble or scatter chart group.

      • A set of coordinates along the value axis if the series is in any other chart group type.

    3. In the third sequence, the value of the formula specifies:

      • A set of coordinates along a horizontal value axis if the series is in a bubble or scatter chart group.

      • A set of category (2) axis labels that are distributed evenly along the category (2) axis based on their order in the set or a set of dates along a date axis is in any other chart group type.

    4. In the fourth sequence of records, the value of the formula specifies a set of scalar values used in a bubble chart group to define the size of the bubbles.

  • The sequence of records that conform to the SS rule (section 2.1.7.20.1) specify the data point and data label properties for a series or individual data points of the series. If formatting is not specified for an individual data point, the data point inherits the formatting of the series. If formatting is not specified for the series, the series inherits the formatting of the chart group that contains the series. The yi field of the DataFormat record (section 2.4.74) MUST specify the zero-based index of the Series record associated with this series in the collection of all Series records in the current chart sheet substream that contains the series. Refer to the data label overview for an explanation of the data label and the conditions on this collection of records.

  • The SerToCrt record (section 2.4.256) specifies the chart group that contains the current series.

  • The LegendException record (section 2.4.153) specifies a legend entry in the legend (section 2.2.3.8) that corresponds to the series. If the LegendException record (section 2.4.153) specifies that the legend entry has non-default formatting, then the attached label (section 2.2.3.15) and the sequence of records that conforms to the TEXTPROPS rule (section 2.1.7.20.1) that follow the LegendException (section 2.4.153) and Begin (section 2.4.17) records specify the custom formatting of the legend entry. If the fLabel field of LegendException equals 0, the attached label MUST NOT exist.