I am currently working with a pivot table in Google Sheets that is intended to count various types of events that occur on specific dates. The data is organized with one sheet for events, containing ‘Date’ and ‘Type’ columns, which is used to generate the pivot table.
However, I’ve encountered an issue where the COUNTA function returns a blank when there are no events for certain dates. I would prefer it to report a value of 0 instead. This change is essential for my charts and statistical analysis, as the current setup leads to interpolation that skips over these empty cells. I’d like the chart to show zero for those days when no events are logged. Is there a way to achieve this?
From my experience, one way you can ensure that your pivot table reflects a zero for dates with no events is by using a combination of formulas in your data set. You can create an additional column in your data that checks for blanks and substitutes them with zero. For instance, you could use an IF statement, like =IF(ISBLANK(A2), 0, COUNTA(A2)), where A2 represents your column for counting events. This approach preemptively converts any potential blanks into zeroes, which should then be accurately reflected in your pivot table and subsequent charts.