Bug 38760 - Multiple data series cannot support multiple labels in X-Y plot
Summary: Multiple data series cannot support multiple labels in X-Y plot
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Chart (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsDevEval
: 98997 155409 159806 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Chart-Labels XY-Scatter-Chart
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2011-06-28 20:12 UTC by Jim Scarborough
Modified: 2024-10-16 05:56 UTC (History)
18 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
A minimal spreadsheet demonstrating the problem (12.59 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2011-06-28 20:12 UTC, Jim Scarborough
Details
Example showing multi and single series arrangement in row and column-based layout. (42.52 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2014-08-30 15:44 UTC, Owen Genat (retired)
Details
Two data series with different labels (15.76 KB, application/x-vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2016-05-02 21:41 UTC, Regina Henschel
Details
Clarification and demo of a workaround (57.37 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2022-09-03 14:26 UTC, Wolfgang Jäger
Details

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Description Jim Scarborough 2011-06-28 20:12:44 UTC
Created attachment 48535 [details]
A minimal spreadsheet demonstrating the problem

1. Set up 3 columns, 3 rows in the top left corner like this:

Label  X   Y
A      1   1
B      0   1

2. Create an X-Y chart.  Create two data series, A and B.
   a. For series A: Name=$A$2, X-Values=$B$2, Y-Values=$C$2, Labels=$A$2
   a. For series B: Name=$A$3, X-Values=$B$3, Y-Values=$C$3, Labels=$A$3

3. For both series, select "Show data labels."
4. For both series, select "Format data labels," and on the data tab, un-check "Show value as number" and check "Show category". 

Expected:
Data points are labeled A and B.

Actual:
Data points are labeled A and A.
Comment 1 Jeffrey 2011-06-29 20:13:34 UTC
Reproduced on LibreOffice 3.4  340m1(Build:12) in KDE on OpenSuse for Linux.

Downloaded the attachment. If I try to change the label by:
1. Right click chart -> Data Ranges
2. Select "B" from under Data Series
3. Change the Data Labels cell to $A$3, then the Data Labels cell for series "A" changes as well. Seems like the two are linked together.
Comment 2 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 12:24:41 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 3 dww 2012-02-15 07:10:26 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> [This is an automated message.]
> This bug was filed before the changes to Bugzilla on 2011-10-16. Thus it
> started right out as NEW without ever being explicitly confirmed. The bug is
> changed to state NEEDINFO for this reason. To move this bug from NEEDINFO back
> to NEW please check if the bug still persists with the 3.5.0 beta1 or beta2 prereleases.
> Details on how to test the 3.5.0 beta1 can be found at:
> http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1
> 
> more detail on this bulk operation: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/RFC-Operation-Spamzilla-tp3607474p3607474.html

Tested in 3.5.0 rc3
Bug still persists.
The cause of this bug is that the "Data Labels" field in a chart is a set globally for all data ranges in a chart.  To remedy this, it would have to be possible to set different data labels for each data series.  In many scientific applications it is essential to be able to control how all data points on an X-Y graph are labeled, so this would be a very useful feature
Comment 4 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:00:18 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 5 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:01:26 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:06:10 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 Florian Reisinger 2012-08-14 14:08:11 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 8 sasha.libreoffice 2012-09-21 10:36:57 UTC
Attached document demonstrates wrong behaviour. But problem not reproducible from scratch in 3.3.4 and 3.6.1. Therefore, possible, problem is inside of file. Or I am doing something wrong.
Comment 9 Joel Madero 2012-11-21 17:27:04 UTC
I am marking this as WORKSFORME. I see correct labels when opening this with LibreOffice 3.6.3.2 as well as in Excel. 

I am running this on Linux, if this is still an issue in Windows please reopen as UNCONFIRMED and I'll get someone with Windows to take a look at it. Closing it just because it's so old that it's likely been fixed + I can't imagine the code in this section being dependent on operating system.

Thanks for your patience.
Comment 10 kees 2013-04-11 07:47:04 UTC
I can confirm this bug on libo 4.0.2.2 (on win7). The labels show A, A, instead of A,B.
Comment 11 Teraslilja 2013-04-19 08:28:32 UTC
At version 4.0.2.2: 
Confirmed. Data label is common for ALL data series at XY chart.
Comment 12 ign_christian 2013-05-23 15:05:50 UTC
reproducible on LO 4.0.3.3 (Win7 32bit)
Comment 13 Owen Genat (retired) 2014-08-30 15:44:24 UTC
Created attachment 105474 [details]
Example showing multi and single series arrangement in row and column-based layout.

I am not convinced this report is a bug. 

https://help.libreoffice.org/Chart/Chart_Type_XY

That help page states:

> An XY chart in its basic form is based on one data series consisting of a 
> name, a list of x‑values, and a list of y‑values. Each value pair (x|y) is 
> shown as a point in a coordinate system. The name of the data series is 
> associated with the y‑values and shown in the legend.

According to the help page, this type of chart only supports a single-series arrangement. It is also not clear from the provided example, whether the Labels "A" and "B" are single points in different series or different points in a single series. I have attached a clearer example, showing some options, given series A and B and points A1/A2 and B1/B2 in each series respectively. 

It still needs to be determined whether multiple series are supported in this type of chart. Generally a line chart is used where multiple series are required.
Comment 14 Owen Genat (retired) 2014-08-30 15:47:47 UTC
Per comment 13, status set to NEEDINFO.
Comment 15 Jim Scarborough 2014-08-30 19:01:06 UTC
I discovered the problem because I had a need to represent multiple series
on an x-y plot.  I was able to determine that it doesn't work even though
the UI seems like it would offer that functionality.

I suggest that there is a bug either in the functionality or the UI, but
that the optimal solution is to improve the functionality to support
multiple series.

I would have a look at this code myself, but I fear it would take 10 hours
just to get my bearings.
Comment 16 Owen Genat (retired) 2014-08-30 22:25:55 UTC
(In reply to comment #15)
> I discovered the problem because I had a need to represent multiple series
> on an x-y plot.  I was able to determine that it doesn't work even though
> the UI seems like it would offer that functionality.
> 
> I suggest that there is a bug either in the functionality or the UI, but
> that the optimal solution is to improve the functionality to support
> multiple series.

I agree. Attachment 105474 [details] merely illustrates this more clearly. The XY Scatter chart type is effectively a more strict subset of the Line chart type (in terms of dialogs presented in the wizard). It is possible to use the XY Scatter chart type to plot multiple series, but the data needs to be in Line (category for X-axis; data series for Y-axes) arrangement, rather than XY Scatter (X coord for X-axis; Y coord for Y-axis) arrangement. 

It seems the chart wizard or something in code does not treat the XY Scatter chart type as strictly as it could. I find this confusing as it inhibits, rather than assists, clear thinking about the data and arrangement. Hopefully we can get some clarity on this.
Comment 17 jilbruke 2015-04-12 12:09:16 UTC
The 'bug' is presently set as NEEDINFO and as of version 4.4.2.2.

I would categorise this behaviour as a bug as so many people expect the behaviour desrcibed from the originally stated case, myself included. Another reason to call it a bug is that if 'Show value as number' and 'Show category' are both enabled, the value data shown does not restart but the category does, making the two adjacent pieces of data in the label incongruent.

Simply making the help documentation state that this is a known limitation is not a solution, it is an awkward side-step of the problem. It can't be expected that someone need to restructure a whole worksheet simply because of a limitation in charting.

The category data simply needs to be made one-per series rather than one-per chart. I cannot see what this change would conflict with.
Comment 18 Owen Genat (retired) 2015-04-14 02:53:53 UTC
In accordance with comment 13, comment 15, and comment 16 I am adding "NeedsDevEval" tag to whiteboard as it is not clear to me whether this report is:

- an enhancement request (to improve chart wizard to either be clearer about the restriction or support multiple series);
- a bug (if the XY Scatter chart is supposed to support multiple series);
- supported by ODF.

Status set to NEW.
Comment 19 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2015-12-13 11:21:21 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 20 raal 2016-03-31 11:42:39 UTC
*** Bug 98997 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 21 Alex 2016-03-31 11:55:31 UTC
Thanks to raak for linking this bug to my new (duplicate) one. I looked for duplicates but hadn't obviously looked back to 2012!

With regards to comment 18 I would argue that this issue is a bug in that xy scatter graphs should be able to deal with multiple series labels -especially considering that you can make multiple series in calc.

If the bug cannot be rectified soon then the ui needs updating as a stopgap so people do not experience this shortfall without realising the output from calc is incorrect. E.g. only allowing label input for 1 series. This is not a solution however and I would argue that the bug needs fixing.
Comment 22 Joel Madero 2016-04-05 04:50:15 UTC
Hi Alex,

Quick point.
> 
> If the bug cannot be rectified soon then the ui needs updating as a stopgap
> so people do not experience this shortfall without realising the output from
> calc is incorrect. E.g. only allowing label input for 1 series. This is not
> a solution however and I would argue that the bug needs fixing.


This isn't how an open source project works. There is no "needs fixing" - every bug needs fixing, the thing is that a volunteer must take an interest in fixing it. The options are always the same:

1) Fix it yourself (open source means that you can do just that);
2) Find someone to fix it;
3) Pay for a fix - almost always too expensive for an individual person
4) Wait

Even if the UI "needs updating" it'll take a volunteer to tackle that.
Comment 23 Regina Henschel 2016-05-02 21:41:29 UTC
Created attachment 124800 [details]
Two data series with different labels

As workaround you can define each data series on the whole x-range and leave the y cells empty for those x-values, which do not belong to the series.
Comment 24 Lars Jødal 2017-01-27 13:44:58 UTC
Thanks to Regina for the workaround (comment 23).

I am also among those considering this a bug:

a) It is possible to show multiple data series in an XY chart (as shown in Regina's workaround). So it is counter-intuitive that only a single series of labels can be chosen.

b) The UI allows the user to select labels that APPEAR to be tied to the individual series (along with the choice of X-data and Y-data). But if a set of data labels is selected for one data series, then IN REALITY this selection applies to all data series.

c) 'Show value as number' uses the individual series, while 'Show category' uses the single series of data labels, which together gives incongruent labels (see comment 17).

I am aware that bugs are only fixed, if somebody chooses to fix them. So far my own contribution is only in trying to give useful bug reports. Kudos to everybody actually FIXING the bugs!

(Using LO version 5.2.4.2)
Comment 25 QA Administrators 2018-01-28 03:24:46 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 26 Jim Scarborough 2018-01-29 12:57:18 UTC
This bug is still present in v 5.4.4.2, build 5.4.4.2-3.fc27, 8 threads on Linux 4.14, VCL: gtk3, en-us.UTF-8, Calc: group. 

Attachment 105474 [details] shows the problem very clearly.
Comment 27 QA Administrators 2019-10-15 02:28:47 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 28 Regina Henschel 2020-09-13 14:48:16 UTC
Not implemented in Version: 7.0.0.2 (x64)
Build ID: c01aa64b6c3d89ebe5fe69c28c7adb24eb85249c
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 18362; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL

Investigation needed, whether this needs ODF extension and whether such feature is needed for interoperability with MS Office.
Comment 29 Regina Henschel 2020-09-15 00:24:06 UTC
An ODF extension would be needed. The labels are written in a <chart:categories> element and that is a child of the <chart:axis> element and not of a <chart:series> element. The <chart:series> element has only the <chart:domain> child element for the x-values and the <chart:values-cell-range-address> child element for the y-values.
Comment 30 Wolfgang Jäger 2022-09-03 14:26:53 UTC
Created attachment 182187 [details]
Clarification and demo of a workaround

(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #29)
> An ODF extension would be needed. The labels are written in a
> <chart:categories> element and that is a child of the <chart:axis> element
> and not of a <chart:series> element. The <chart:series> element has only the
> <chart:domain> child element for the x-values and the
> <chart:values-cell-range-address> child element for the y-values.

But ( I only refer to X-Y-Scatter, because IO very rarely use different types.):
1. The data source for the labels is described as "Data labels" in the dialog (UI), and can be chosen per series.
2. Trying to assign a different labels range for a different series is neither blocked nor provoking an alert. However, the new range is applied to all the series witzhout further notice.

== This is clearly misleading the user, and insofar a bug. ===

3. The dialog also offers (by default) to use the values as labels. This may be rarly sensible, but seems to tell me that functionally the ODF representation of the cahjrt and the UI as well as the API don't talk the same language. 

=== A different kind of bug? ===

4. On the other hand the actual implementation may have a way to use "hidden series" as sources for er4xplicit labels NOT being categories withot violating the needs concerning the saving to an ODF. Do YOU know?

I will attach a not quite miniomal example wherte labels from extra ranges are implemented by user code. It may not help concerning prpobable conflicts with ODF stanbdards, but it surely can show what I would expect a reasonable solution to be capable of.
Generally a solution saving info about source-ranges for labels per series wolud be clear, useful and allowe for simplification of the 'Format Data Labels' dialog (which isn't exactly about formattiong).
Comment 31 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-05-23 13:05:02 UTC
*** Bug 155409 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 32 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-05-23 13:06:12 UTC
Duplicate bug 155409 offers a good example of needing independent data label ranges for two series: attachment 187400 [details]
Comment 33 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-05-23 13:07:39 UTC
Affects all OSs; same in OOo 3.3 -> inherited.
Comment 34 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2024-03-08 13:37:05 UTC
*** Bug 159806 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***