Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Excluding Some Data from a Chart.

Excluding Some Data from a Chart

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 13, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Pam keeps a month's worth of data in a table and created a chart based on that data. The data was collected from information generated on her company's shop floor. The data includes weekends, but Pam doesn't want the weekend data included in the chart. She knows that she could hide the rows and they would be excluded from the chart, but she still needs the hidden rows to be displayed in the table. In other words, she wants them displayed in the data table, but not in the chart.

There are a couple of ways you could approach this problem. One is to simply make a copy of your data (maybe copy the whole worksheet) and then delete the rows that contain weekend data. You would still have your master data for whatever purposes you need, but you could base your chart on the modified copy of that data.

The drawback to this, of course, is that it creates two sets of data that may need to be updated or kept in sync in some way. It may be better to base your chart on a non-contiguous data range. Assume, for a moment, that your data was in A1:B15, and that there were weekends in rows 7, 8, 14, and 15. You could, within the chart, set the data range for the source data to this:

=Sheet1!$A$1:$B$6,Sheet1!$A$9:$B$13

You could also create a named range that refers to the non-contiguous ranges you want included in the chart. You could then use the named range in your chart, as a reference to the source data.

Finally, if you don't mind adding another column to your data, you could use the new column for your chart source. Assume, for a moment, that your readings are in column A and the dates of those readings are in column B. In each cell of column C you could place the following formula:

=IF(WEEKDAY(B1,2)>5,NA(),A1)

You then end up with a series of readings for all weekdays; the weekends show #N/A for the reading. You can base your chart on this data and Excel will ignore the #N/A values. You can even hide column C so it does not distract from your source data.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7843) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Excluding Some Data from a Chart.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Viewing Your Document Full-Screen

Want to see the absolute most of your document that you can? Then you need to become familiar with the full-screen ...

Discover More

Changing Lock Screen Apps

The Lock Screen can show you much more than just a pretty picture. Here's how to display just the information you want on ...

Discover More

Leaving Bullet Point Items Lowercase

When typing a bulleted list, Word seems to automatically make the first letter of each item in the list uppercase. The ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Negatives in Pie Charts

Pie charts are a great way to graphically display some types of data. Displaying negative values is not so great in pie ...

Discover More

Controlling Chart Gridlines

Gridlines are often added to charts to help improve the readability of the chart itself. Here's how you can control ...

Discover More

Adjusting Your View of 3-D Graphs

Do you use Excel's charting capabilities to display three-dimensional views of your data? The program provides a way that ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six more than 6?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.