Skip to main content

How to create a chart with date and time on X axis in Excel?

In Excel, we usually insert a chart to better describe the data. But in some cases, when you create a column/bar/line chart based on a series of date and time, the X axis of the chart may be shown as below screenshot. And in this article, I introduce the way for how to show the date and time on X axis correctly in the Chart.
doc chart with date time 1

Create a chart with date and time on X axis correctly

arrow blue right bubble Create a chart with date and time on X axis correctly

To display the date and time correctly, you only need to change an option in the Format Axis dialog.

1. Right click at the X axis in the chart, and select Format Axis from the context menu. See screenshot:
doc chart with date time 2

2. Then in the Format Axis pane or Format Axis dialog, under Axis Options tab, check Text axis option in the Axis Type section. See screenshot:
  doc chart with date time 4
If you use the excel version later than 2010, you can see a Format Axis pane pops out, and check Text axis option under Axis Type in the Axis Options group.
doc chart with date time 3

3. Click Close or go back to the chart, then then date and time data has been correctly display in the X axis. See screenshot:
doc chart with date time 5

Create a speedometer chart with two steps！
Sometimes, you may want to use a speedometer chart to display the pricessing of a project, but in Excel, to create a speedometer chart needs many steps which is complex and wasting time. Here, the Speedometer chart tool in Kutools for Excel can help you create a standard speedometer chart by two simplesteps. Download this tool with free 30-day trial now.
doc speedometer chart

Best Office Productivity Tools

Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup  |   Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar   |  Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells   |  Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets:  12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...

kte tab 201905

Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!
Comments (23)
No ratings yet. Be the first to rate!
MO
MO
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I have the same issue when graphing data that has date AND time: points on the graph are equally spaced, whereas the underlying data has unequal gaps between datapoints. Data is in the form "dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm" formatted as date/time (not text). Data spans multiple days so it's not possible to extract just the time element.
Reply
0
0
Demi Kauristedt
Demi Kauristedt
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I have a chart with x-axis in time that stretches during about 6h and 35min. I have data for each 20min in the beginning, then 15min and lastly each 10min. Also, in between I have 45min and 5min data.. The issue that I have, and several others, is that each gap between the date are equally spaced out. Meaning that, even if it is only 5min the gap is the same as if it was 45min.
Reply
0
0
syed Mubashir alam
syed Mubashir alam
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
i want to make a line graph which contains thousand of entries it's included date, time, month and year, so please help me out.
Reply
0
0
Sunny
Sunny     syed Mubashir alam
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, syed Mubashir alam, I do not understand your quetion, if you just create a line graph and the x-axis contains month/day/year hour:minute as below screenshot shown:
https://www.extendoffice.com/images/stories/comments/sun-comment/line-chart-1.png
just follow above steps of the article. If your question is about the axis contents are to long, there is no good idea.
Reply
Report
0
0
syed Mubashir alam
syed Mubashir alam
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
i want to make a line graph which contains thousands of entries including time, date, month and year but i couldn't make a line graph so please help me out.
Reply
0
0
Augustin Gustavo
Augustin Gustavo
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
It's good coment that point is not a comma. When you want to add more numericals numbers you should use comma in excel ;)
Reply
0
0
ab
ab
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Excel menus have changed - this is an out of date article - please update for 2020 .. e.g where is AXIS TYPE now?
Reply
0
0
Sunny
Sunny     ab
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I did not found Excel 2020, just 365 2019, which menus are the same as 2013,2016 version.
Reply
Report
0
0
TJ Roberts
TJ Roberts
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
How do I remove days that don't have data in them. Example 8/1-8/31 but not data was captured on 8/3 or 8/4, how do I remove those dates from my graph? They are not in my data table so why is it pulling them?
Reply
0
0
R
R     TJ Roberts
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Open the Excel file that holds the chart from which you want to exclude dates. Click the X-axis, located underneath the chart, so that it becomes surrounded by a small box. Right-click inside the box and choose "Format Axis" from the popup menu. Click "Axis Options" on the left side of the "Format Axis" window. Locate the three "Axis Type" options in the middle of the screen on the right side of the window. Click the radio button next to "Text axis."
Reply
0
0
Sunny
Sunny     TJ Roberts
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, TJ Roberts, this tutorial may help you https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/4374-excel-skip-blanks-in-chart.html
Reply
Report
0
0
Agassi
Agassi
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, I have an issue here. When I opened "Format Axis" and "Axis Options", there is no "Axis Type" choice here
Reply
0
0
Sunny
Sunny     Agassi
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, Agassi, which Excel version you use?
Reply
Report
0
0
Rafael
Rafael
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Easy, useful, but i didn't know. Thanks a lot
Reply
0
0
KIWI
KIWI
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
But it doesnt show them in right relation to eachother. For example 2 hours and 6 hours are same in chart..
Reply
0
0
Sunny
Sunny     KIWI
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi Kiwi, maybe you can paint a chart to show me what you want the chart show.
Reply
Report
0
0
There are no comments posted here yet
Load More
Please leave your comments in English
Guest
Posting as Guest
×
Rate this post:
Reset
0   Characters
Suggested Locations