How To Graph Negative Numbers

How to display negative values as positives

I love a diverging bar chart. If you're not aware with them so follow Andy's blog here on how to brand them. 1 of the nice things to do with a diverging bar chart is to characterization the ends of the bars so that you lot can remove the axis. This helps to reduce clutter, making your viz more impactful. However, if yous use a negative on one of your fields to brand it become to the left, then you lot'll finish up with negative labels, when in fact they are positives.

How can we fix this?

Information technology'south simple.

Right click on your negative measure and click on Default Properties > Number Format :

2. Set up your number format to however you want to run across them displayed – here I am using a percentage with 1 decimal place. Don't click on OK even so though – in that location'due south 1 more than footstep.

3. Click on 'Custom' – You volition notice a semi-colon (;) and a value either side. What this ways is for positive values display in the format to the left, and for negative values use the format on the right. Simply remove the – before the value afterwards the semi-colon. Now your negative values will non brandish the – prefix before them – and then they will appear as positive values despite really being negative.