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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


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Comments (23)
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
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?
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.
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?
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."
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
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
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, Agassi, which Excel version you use?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Easy, useful, but i didn't know. Thanks a lot
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..
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.
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