Heartwarming Excel Chart Axis Date Format

Select the format you like to have for your chart.

Excel chart axis date format. Change the Number Format to the date format that you want. If you right click on the horizontal axis and choose to Format Axis you will see that under Axis Type it has 3 options being Automatic text or date. When you create a chart using valid dates on a horizontal axis Excel automatically sets the axis type to date.

Each table has dates across the header row and about four other rows with data. You can create a calculated column using FORMAT. There is however one work around.

Right click at the X axis in the chart and select Format Axis from the context menu. This is how to resolve it. And the Format Cells dialog will open.

For example this stock price data is spaced out over a period of more than 10 years in random intervals. Now double-click on the bottom horizontal date axis to format it. Make sure the minimum and maximum are correct change Base.

Scatter charts in Excel have a bug where the date format isnt displayed properly. Make sure all the dates are in the format Excel recognizes as dates not text. In the Format Axis pane select the Axis Options tab.

Change your data to the Date format to take advantage of Date Axis. If Excel sees valid dates it will allow you to control the scale into days months or years. Somehow I gather Excels chart system is interpreting it all as strings not dates.