Bar and Column charts

Availability:

• Summary view - All modes except for Transaction mode.

• Focused view (when you select and focus on items in a dimension) - All modes except for Search, Transaction and Market.

Bar and Column charts are very similar. They're great for displaying simple comparisons. For example, the top 10 product sales or monthly output. You can hover over data points to display the underlying values.

A Bar chart displays several variables together in horizontal bars, whereas a Column chart displays them horizontally.

The following table describes what the Bar chart looks like in each view. The Column chart looks similar.

	Summary view	Focused view
Contents	There are bars for each time unit (month/day/year) in the period (or stream). The current period has a blue bar and the previous period has a red bar.	There is a bar for each of the focused items.
X-axis	The X-axis displays the total, which starts at zero.	The X-axis displays the total, which starts at zero.
Y-axis	The Y-axis displays the time units of your current period.	The contents of the Y-axis depends on the mode. In Period and Moving mode, it displays the time units of your current period. Whereas, in Variance, Stream and Total mode, it displays each focused item.
Example

Example 1: Use a Bar chart to compare the performance of Sales Reps

In the Sales database, create a Bar chart to compare the performance of the top five Sales Reps for the current financial year to date (YTD) with the previous year.

Firstly, prepare the data in the grid:

1. Select the Sales Rep dimension, then select and focus on the top five Sales Reps.

2. Select Mode > Variance.

3. Select Period > Financial YTD.

Then, click the Chart button in the top right toolbar above the grid. The Bar chart type displays by default. You can now compare the sales for each of the five Sales Reps this year to date (blue bars) with that of last year (red bars).

Example 2: Crete a Column chart

1. Prepare the data in the grid.

2. Click the Chart button in the top right toolbar above the grid.

3. Click the Bar chart category button and select the Column option.

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Related pages

You can take the following actions with your chart:

Configure the chart options | Select and focus on a chart segment | Use the chart legend | Save the chart as a favorite | Add the chart to a dashboard | Export a chart as an image

See also the main page: Visualize your data in a chart