ABSOLUTE LINEAR SHAFT ENCODER

Hello all. I'm new to this and not really up to date with prigraming.
I have a personal project I am trying to solve I would live to use a ABSOLUTE LINEAR SHAFT ENCODER and record the readings as it moves up and down the shaft. I would need to record 1 to 10 mins of the movement of the shaft. It will have to have a batter and data logger. The problem I am trying to sold is the voltage can be stored but how would I get this movement onto a graph so I can look at the results.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks Andrew

The problem I am trying to sold is the voltage can be stored but how would I get this movement onto a graph so I can look at the results.

That bit is simple, just send the numbers out of the serial port and use the serial plot window from the tools memory.

However I have never come across an absolute linear encoder, only relative ones. If one does exist it is not going to be cheap. Maybe you could make one with some sort of roller converting it into a rotation.