Time Series Plot

Use Time Series Plot to look for patterns in your data over time, such as trends or seasonal patterns.

In This Topic

Continuous variables
Time scale labels (optional)
Layout
By variables
Y-scale

For information about data considerations, examples, and interpretation, go to Overview for Time Series Plot.

Continuous variables

Enter one or more columns of time-ordered numeric data that you want to graph.

Time scale labels (optional)

Enter up to three columns of categorical data that define the groups

Layout

Set the following layout options.

Panel continuous variables: Columns in the Continuous variables input field appear on a single time series plot where all variables share a single X-axis and each continuous variable appears in its own panel.
Overlay continuous variables: Columns in the Continuous variables input field are overlaid on a single time series plot.

By variables

Enter one or more grouping variables in By variables to create a separate time series plot for each level of the grouping variables. The columns that you enter can be numeric or text, and must be the same length as the columns in Continuous variables and Time scale labels. The y-scales for each variable are the same across the multiple time series plots.

Show all combinations

When you enter multiple By variables, Minitab enables the Show all combinations checkbox. Select this option to create a separate time series plot for each combination of groups created by the By variables. If you do not select this option, Minitab creates a plot for each group of each By variable.

For example, the first By variable has 2 groups, Male and Female, and the second By variable has 2 groups, Employed and Unemployed. If you select Show all combinations, Minitab creates 4 separate plots for the combinations of Male/Employed, Male/Unemployed, Female/Employed, and Female/Unemployed. If you do not select Show all combinations, Minitab creates 4 separate individual value plots for Male, Female, Employed, and Unemployed.

Y-scale

Select how you want to display the y-scale.

Original data: Select to use a single y-scale that is repeated for each variable. The minimum and maximum values for the scale are the overall minimum and maximum values from all the data that you entered.
Percent of range: Select to plot each variable with a unique y-scale. A series that contains all of the minimum or maximum values for each variable will be a horizontal line.
Log scale: A logarithmic scale linearizes logarithmic relationships by changing the axis, so that the same distance represents different changes in value across the scale. This option is only available for positive data.

Same Y-scale

Make the Y-scale the same across multiple panels.