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How do I prevent smooth curve in Excel from going below 0 on a graph? I need a smooth curve because I don't have enough data points, it looks terrible as a straight line. As you can see on this graph two of the data series goes below 0, even though none of the data points are 0.

graph

I don't want to split it into 2 data series, that wouldn't make any sense as it would show up as 2 items in the legend.

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  • What do you want it to do with the values that are below zero? Make them zero or have the line disappear and reappear? Can you provide an example of your data? Apr 13, 2016 at 14:47
  • Like I said, none of the values are below 0. There are only 4 dates. For example, for blue line at bottom, the 4 data points are 0, 0, 0, 15.
    – Heartcloud
    Apr 13, 2016 at 14:49
  • Have you tried clicking the x-axis and scale it to your minimum and maximum? Apr 13, 2016 at 14:55
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    Data charts aren't art-they're supposed to represent the underlying data, not a "pretty" estimation. So, unless the fitted curve matches your data you should stick with your actual data points and lines which are a reasonable estimate of the intervening values.
    – dav
    Apr 13, 2016 at 16:48

1 Answer 1

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'Smooth Curves' in Excel are really fitted polynomial, logarithmic, or other functions of various types. They are mathematically calculated, and depending of the type you chose, the result is what you get.

You should be able to right click each curve and choose another type of 'smoothing'; that way, you might be able to find one that looks better to you. I think it should work for sure to use sliding averages (but that curve might have other effects you might not like).

Potentially, there is no curve that fits your need; the only way to fake one then is to modify the respective data point to make it look nicer.

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  • He seems to use the "Smooth curve" check, not a smoothed curve on top of a normal curve and then you cannot choose what to use to smooth it. Apr 13, 2021 at 16:55

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