Quick Tip: Single-letter month header on Date Values

Here's a quick tip for formatting single letter month abbreviations in for continuous dates..mostly so I remember it myself :-)

I first saw this neat little trick shared by Steve Wexler on one of the "Think Data Thursday" sessions this summer. 

Let's say you want a mini-chart in your dashboard and month is your interval on the date axis. If you are only dealing with one calendar year, no problem. Simply use the Date Part (blue pill) 'Month' and format it to display just the First Letter, like this:

 

But sometimes you don't necessarily want to aggregate all the February's or July's in your viz in one column, you may want them separate, especially if you're displaying data that spans outside of one calendar year and you want it ordered chronologically.   In that case, you need the Date Value (green pill) rather than Date Part (blue pill)  However, when you go to format it to display only the First Letter, that option is not available.

What you can do in this case, is use the Custom format option and type in 5 M's (yes 5) and your date display will magically change to First Letter only.  Seems a little counter-intuitive to me, but it works.  I wish I knew who first discovered this and how because I want to buy them a beer for making my life easier.

Now if I could only figure out how to make it not skip month labels when I shrink it. (???)

I'm hoping someone can comment below and enlighten me.


Enjoy the journey!