Why is my line chart not plotting horizontally (flat) for the same value?

I have a line chart showing % change over months; for the same value, I have lines that are not displaying horizontally in the chart and are implying a slight increase/decrease has occurred.

The percentages are a simple average of cells in a column. I've verified already that the cells contain the same whole #s (no decimal quantities used), so this is not a rounding issue. Here's a screenshot of the issue for reference:

Any ideas how I can fix this?

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Accepted answers

Genevieve P.

Hi @ctran

Just jumping in to clarify - Smartsheet will automatically round to 2 decimal places as a visual aid, but that may not be the full number in the cell.

Try removing the percentage and also increasing the decimals showing just in case Antonie's suggestion is what's happening!

AVG(COLLECT will still average with decimals, but they will be hidden based on your field settings in the summary panel.

For example, my AVG(COLLECT shows this:

But then I increase the decimal twice and the field now shows this:

You can add ROUND to your formula if you don't want more than 2 decimal points!

Cheers,
Genevieve

All comments

Antonie B

Hi @ctran,

Since the percentages are rounded, what values are you left with if you remove the % and make them into decimals?

I am only able to replicate if I have increments. If both values are the same (34% or 0.34), the line is straight.

If the values differ slightly, ie both showing as 34% but in decimals one is 0.34 and the other value is 0.344, I also see the behaviour as per your screenshot!

ctran

Hi Antonie,

I removed the percentages and I have 0.18, 0.34, 0.34 for the light blue line and 0.00, 0.18, 0.18 for the darker blue line.

I will amend my first post by saying the formula is actually a '=AVG(COLLECT())' calculation in sheet summary fields based on percentages in the sheet rows that are captured as whole numbers (no decimals), if this makes a difference.

Paul Newcome

It could still be a rounding thing. What happens if you extend the decimals to show as many as possible? Even though only 2 decimals are shown, there could be more stored on the back-end.

Genevieve P.

Hi @ctran

Just jumping in to clarify - Smartsheet will automatically round to 2 decimal places as a visual aid, but that may not be the full number in the cell.

Try removing the percentage and also increasing the decimals showing just in case Antonie's suggestion is what's happening!

AVG(COLLECT will still average with decimals, but they will be hidden based on your field settings in the summary panel.

For example, my AVG(COLLECT shows this:

But then I increase the decimal twice and the field now shows this:

You can add ROUND to your formula if you don't want more than 2 decimal points!

Cheers,
Genevieve

ctran

Hi All,

Thank you for the answers! Verifying the rounding issue by increasing decimals was the fix.

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