Chart Time Unit and Chart Zoom: Choose How Detailed an Over-Time Chart Is, and What Part of It You See
Two settings on over-time charts change how a chart is drawn without changing its date filter:
Chart time unit sets the steps along the time axis. A chart no longer has to use the date filter's own unit: you can draw the last 3 days by the hour, or the last 7 days in 15-minute steps.
Chart zoom sets which part of the date range the chart shows. The whole range still loads and the numbers don't change; the chart frames the part you choose, for example today out of the last 3 days.
Together they let one widget answer "what does today look like, in 15-minute detail?" while its date range covers several days.
Before you start
Chart time unit works on bar, line, stacked area, stacked bar and multi-line charts, and on combined charts in both views.
Chart zoom works on bar, line, Trend Line, stacked area, stacked bar and multi-line charts, and on combined charts in the chart view.
Neither applies to heat maps (always hourly), timelines (they have their own granularity setting) or time series tables. Trend Line charts take a zoom but not a chart time unit.
You need permission to edit the dashboard to change a widget's settings.
Draw a chart in a different time unit
Open the dashboard and click Edit.
On the widget, open the ⋮ menu and choose Edit.
Under Chart time unit, pick a unit:
Use date filter (default): the date filter's own unit, as every chart was drawn before this setting existed.
Smallest that fits: the most detailed unit the date range allows.
1 minute, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, Hour, Day, Week or Month.
Click Edit Widget to save.
The chart covers exactly the date filter's window, and its title and date summary still describe the filter. Here the same "Last 3 days" queue height is drawn by the hour:
How much detail a date range allows
Each unit has a limit on how much time it can cover, so a chart never tries to draw tens of thousands of points:
Unit | Longest date range it draws |
1 minute | About a day (1,500 points) |
15 minutes | Last 7 days |
30 minutes | Last 14 days |
Hour | Last 32 days |
Day, Week | 700 points |
Month | No limit |
Too detailed for the range: the chart moves up to the next unit that fits. A "Last 30 days" chart set to 1 minute is drawn by the hour.
Too coarse for the range: a unit that would put fewer than 2 points on the chart (a "Last 6 hours" chart by the month) falls back to the date filter's unit.
Either way the widget shows a caution triangle in its top bar. Hover it to see which unit was used instead and why:
How days, weeks and months are counted
Days, weeks and months follow the calendar of the date filter's time zone: a day runs from local midnight to midnight, a week starts on Monday, and a month starts on the 1st. A weekly chart in a Pacific-time dashboard therefore splits its weeks at Monday midnight Pacific time.
Zoom a chart to part of its date range
A zoom changes what the chart shows, not what it counts. The widget still loads its whole date range, so every point keeps the value the full query gave it. That lets you keep a longer range on the widget while the chart opens on the part you watch most.
Pick a zoom in the widget settings
In edit mode, open the widget's ⋮ menu and choose Edit.
Under Chart zoom, pick a preset:
Whole date range (default)
Today (to date), This week (to date), This month (to date)
Last hour, Last 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24 hours, Last 2, 3 or 7 days
Click Edit Widget to save.
Zooms are measured back from now, so "Today (to date)" always shows today, and "Last 8 hours" rolls forward as time passes. The date summary in the widget's top bar says when a chart is zoomed, for example Last 3 days · focused on today (to date):
Or drag across the chart
In edit mode, drag across the part of the chart you want to see. The chart zooms in, and the date summary reads zoomed to … (not saved).
Click Save zoom to keep it on the widget, or Reset to go back.
To remove a saved zoom later, click Clear zoom in the widget's top bar while editing.
On a date range that moves ("Last 3 days"), a dragged zoom is saved as a distance from now ("last 25 hours"), so it rolls forward with the range. On fixed dates, it is saved as fixed times.
Example: today's queue in detail, on a longer range
For a queue height chart, set the date filter to Last 3 days, the chart time unit to 15 minutes and the zoom to Today (to date). The chart opens on today in 15-minute steps. To compare with the days before, clear the zoom or drag a wider window while editing; the widget's date range never changes.
Troubleshooting
The chart shows a different unit than I picked. The unit was too detailed or too coarse for the date range. Hover the caution triangle for the reason, then shorten the date range or pick a coarser unit.
My zoom isn't applied. A saved zoom larger than the date range (a "Last 7 days" zoom on a "Last 24 hours" chart) is ignored, and the caution triangle says so. A zoom also isn't applied when the range switches between fixed dates and a moving range, for example from the Quick Filters Bar; the chart then shows its whole range.
I picked a zoom and the widget's date range changed. A widget with no date range of its own takes the preset as its date range instead of a zoom, and a preset that is already the widget's date range needs no zoom.
I can't drag on the chart. Dragging to zoom works in edit mode only.