Show categorical dates with continuous lines?

[Dave82]

I have a table with a date hierarchy for the x-axis on the line graph visual.  We are showing monthly averages from each of the plants and want them broken out by year/month categorically.  The issue I'm facing is some of the plants do not always take measurements every month so there are months with no data.  This causes breaks in the line graph.  The business would line to see data points for each line all connected even if there is a month with no data, i.e. say Feb has no measurement, it would connect the Jan avg data point to March's data point. 

Basically I see the top graph right now but want it to look like the bottom line chart.  If I switch the x-axis date off from the date hierarchy to just the date column itself, then I get the format option on the x-axis for the type to switch from categorical to continuous which connects all the data point lines.  The problem is then I lose the line chart functonality to drill up/down and expand the date hierarchy with the buttons in the top right of the visual.  Is there a way to keep the categorical drill up/down functionality and connect all the data points with lines?  Not sure if I need to create a separate date table or something. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dave82,

Current you can't use options to keep these data points linked except you remove the legend field. 

For your requirement, perhaps you can write measures to look up the previous results if the current data points that do not exist values and use this measure on the value field. (the previous date point will plot a straight line to the next date point which has values)
Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[amitchandak]

@Dave82 , Based on what I got.

1. You can keep it categorical by using the custom columns from your date table

2. I doubt you can make it behave like continuous in categorical axis type