How to hide points on the chart axis

Excel 2016 2013 2010 2007 2003
Excel proposes very useful formatting for numeric data that can be applied for cells and some chart elements. For example, the standard formatting can be used when you need or want to omit some points of the chart axis, e.g., the zero point. Below you will find how to hide specific points on the chart axis using standard formatting and using a custom label format:
Hide zero point in the Excel 365 chart

Standard Excel formatting includes a variety of built-in formats that cover general, numeric, currency, percentage, exponential, date, time, and custom numeric formats. You can also design custom formats based on one of the built-in formats. See more about conditional formatting for chart axes.

Using standard formatting, you can also hide certain types of numeric data: positive values, negative values, or zero. Standard formatting of numeric data consists of four parts, separated by a semicolon (or comma, see how to change a semicolon to a comma and vice versa):

{positive value}; {negative value}; {zero}; {text value}

  • If you write two formats, the first applies to positive and zero values, and the second applies to negative values,
  • If you write three formats, the first applies to positive values, the second to negative values, and the third to zero,
  • If you write four formats, they apply to positive, negative, zero, and text values, respectively.

To hide some type of numeric points in the Excel for Microsoft 365 chart axis, do the following:

   1.   Right-click on the axis and choose Format Axis... in the popup menu:

Format Axes in popup Excel 365

   2.   On the Format Axis task pane, in the Number group, select Custom category and then change the field Format Code:

To hide zeros, type # ###; - # ###; ; or # ###; - # ###;

Format Axis Excel 365

The first applies to positive values, the second to negative, and the third to zero (for more details, see Conditional formatting of chart axes).

   3.   Click the Add button.

Notes:

  • To display only positive values, type # ###;:
    Format only positive values in Excel 365
  • To hide only negative values, type # ##0; or # ###;;0;:
    Hide negative values in Excel 365
  • To display only negative values, type ; - # ###;:
    Format only negative values in Excel 365

See also this tip in French: Comment masquer des points sur l'axe du graphique.

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