# How do I annotate one point on a chart? Are there ways to make sparse labels?

**URL:** <https://community.omni.co/t/how-do-i-annotate-one-point-on-a-chart-are-there-ways-to-make-sparse-labels/126>\
**Category:** Patterns\
**Created:** [July 23, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://community.omni.co/t/how-do-i-annotate-one-point-on-a-chart-are-there-ways-to-make-sparse-labels/126 "2024-07-23T14:50:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![colin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/community.omni.co/colin/32/112_2.png) [@colin](https://community.omni.co/u/colin)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://community.omni.co/t/how-do-i-annotate-one-point-on-a-chart-are-there-ways-to-make-sparse-labels/126/1 "2024-07-23T14:50:45Z")

</div>

# Single Point Annotation

Often folks want to add a label to a single point or annotate a handful of events in a graph. This article lays out how to do that with both numerics and strings.

It’s very easy to add free text to a data set (note “Label” here is a new column below):

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.41.31 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/2174df210a4698dc757ea350fe16a31230103850.jpeg)

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 8.06.02 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/285763b3ac8c4861723de3435c2ce717cd0bdb63.png)

But when adding direct text, the chart will also plot labels as ‘null’ for the blank points:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.41.42 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/9d08d506f51590aabe7336072b27fef65c3dd0ea.png)

Fortunately we have some alternatives. By using formulas, we can explicit set the blanks to ensure our labels are built properly.

In this case we’ll create a formula to find the MAX() of the data series and only label that point `=IF(B154 = MAX(B:B), "Big Day!", "")`:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.44.36 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/266a925451aa2662952008c250c2d29dd4b6ec25.png)

This will leave only the label on our high-point day:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.45.12 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/f539f1419d1caede79ccfc35592dae344bf94a2e.jpeg)

Working with numeric points requires one addition step. When writing a similar formula for numbers, the database will revert to return nulls for the blank points. This results in labels of 0 on our graph:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.47.43 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/8a7eda94d8a7141a9d2b74b7c3c6461c5e31b0d1.png)  
 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.47.50 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/8b83e04fee80563c518a84bb0205d3eda281f017.jpeg)

We can use the `TEXT()` function to adjust our formula to match the behavior with strings. `TEXT()` allows us to format the resulting value, and retain the empty other cells. In this case, we’ll use `==IF(B1 = MAX(B:B), TEXT(B1, "#"), "")`:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.49.58 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/3afd9e6d88ef1b1f27b497170f6ca67808ff1b42.jpeg)  
 ![Screenshot 2024-07-23 at 7.49.18 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/125ab91b40264f0a2e090107a9454a9615eb7869.png)

Note that the if statement can be adjusted to highlight whatever cells make the most sense (or even use an additional column to “X” the cells that require value labels.

# Thinning Out Data Labels / Sparse Labels

This same technique can be used to thin out data labels on charts (we’d also like to get vis controls down the line).

This is a common problem:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 8.27.01 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/4ac59642805b3d9340ae97b720691e8fb952a243.png)

Again using a thoughtful calc and the label controls we can choose the density. Here, we’ll show every fourth label with `=IF(MOD(ROW(), 4) = 0, TEXT(B1, "#,###"), "")`:

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 8.32.43 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/d0847688c233303164a77762a1e3c113c910b064.png)

 ![Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 8.32.36 AM](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/uploads/omni/original/1X/e6e4de2a33468546fd774cc179d164cc9374e02b.png)