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Line charts: Ability to remove false origin (y axis not starting at 0)

  • April 26, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 91 views

phil_hart
When displaying a report as a line chart, the minimum value on the y-axis will default to just below the minimum value in the data (a false origin) rather than 0.

It would be useful to be able to set this to 0 as false origins can lead to misleading data presentation.

Oddly, this doesn't happen with bar charts.

Does anyone else see this as a problem?

3 replies

sai_ram
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  • Expert ⭐️⭐️
  • May 9, 2018
Hi Phil,
Are there any special cases where you want to see an axis start at a false origin? 
OR
Would you prefer the y-axis always starting at zero?

Thanks for posting 

phil_hart
  • Author
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • May 9, 2018
Hi Sai,

I can't think of a recent graph when I've used a false origin but it would be good to still have the option in case it's requested by our exec team. Generally though, I would prefer it starting at zero as default.

dan_ahrens
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  • Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • May 9, 2018
@Sai - a good example of where it is beneficial to NOT have the y-axis starting at zero would be where you are showing a set of numbers where the variability between values is small and the entire data set is not near to a zero value.

For example, if you wanted to show quarterly renewal percent and the values ranged between 92 and 95 percent. If you represented those values on a chart with a zero y-axis start point, they would all look close to identical, but if your y-axis ranged from 90 to 100, you'd see a much better distinction with the quarterly values.