title: How do I ignore non-numeric cells in a chart?
body: <p>In Excel 2016, I have time series that may contain cells with missing data, typically labelled with a string. I'd like to plot the series ignoring non-numeric cells, but Excel wants to plot them as zeros. Here is how it looks:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4G92w.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4G92w.png" alt="strings are converted into zeros"></a></p>
  
  <p>A workaround could be to create another column with something like</p>
  
  <pre><code>=IF(C13="#N/A N/A",NA(),C13)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as suggested <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24828902/plot-graph-and-calculate-average-from-the-same-range-ignoring-non-numeric-data">here</a>.</p>
  
  <p>However, I'd like to know if there is a way to avoid creating another column.
  Please note that I have selected the option: "Hidden and Empty Cell Settings"/"Show empty cells as: Gaps", but that doesn't seem to help.</p>