Re: [Gnuplot-info] Gnuplot ignoring missing data

[Dave H. <da...@ho...>]

Odd; I just noticed that another of my graphs has a discontinuity at 
missing data, yet I don't have the "set datafile missing 'x'" line, so 
what on earth could be wrong?  What have I not understood about missing 
data?

Taking that directive out of spamlog.gp indeed shows a discontinuity (see 
www.horsfall.org/spamlog-1.pdf) so something is definitely fishy here...

-- Dave

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2019 10:41:36 +1000 (EST)
From: Dave Horsfall <da...@ho...>
To: Gnuplot Mailing List <gnu...@li...>
Subject: Gnuplot ignoring missing data

Mac Sierra + latest patches (it won't go any further), Gnuplot 5.2 p6.

Have a look at www.horsfall.org/spamlog.pdf and note the weirdness at the end; 
there is missing data there thanks to my ISP cutting my fibre and taking ages 
to fix it (great anti-spam measure, I suppose).

In my spamlog.gp, I have:

     set datafile    missing "x"
     ...
     plot datafile using 1:($2)       lt rgb "red"    title 'Reject', \
     ...

Sample line from spamlog.dat:

     2019/04/26      x x x x x x x x x
     (Actually tabs, not spaces)

Have I misunderstood what "missing" means?  It's been a while since I studied 
stats...  My understanding is just that: missing data, hence leave a hole in 
your graph (indistinguishable from zero in my case, but I can handle that).

A message on StackOverflow also says that the above should work and not draw a 
line across it (not that I trust StackOverflow anyway), but that's exactly what 
Gnuplot is doing.

Thanks.

-- Dave