Types of Charts

Areas

Charts in this category display values as points connected by lines, and shade the area between the lines and zero value. The shading emphasizes the magnitude of the values, while the lines emphasize change over a temporal or categorical dimension.

An Area Chart draws straight lines between data points. Example

A Multitab Area Chart shows an aggregate of values. Example

Example of a multitab area chart.

A Spline Area Chart draws curved lines between data points. Example

A Stacked Area Chart show stacks areas on top of each other, visualizing change in composition or sum total. Example

For more information about MultiTab Area, Spline Area, and Stacked Area charts, see MultiTab Chart Variants.

Bars

Charts in this category display values as rectangles, either horizontally (bars) or vertically (columns). Bar charts are best for comparing magnitudes across categorical dimensions.

A Bar Chart displays data as horizontal bars. Example

A Column Chart displays data as vertical bars. Example

A Gantt Chart displays the duration of tasks and their dependencies during a project life span. Example

A Histogram displays the distribution of numeric data across several dimension values. Example

Dimension data must be binned into categories before it can be used in a histogram. For more information, see What Is Data Binning? and Binning Data.

A Sparkcolumn Chart is a simplified column chart without labels or axes. It is ideal for small multiples or finding trends at a glance. Example

A Stacked Bar Chart or Stacked Column Chart stacks values together, visualizing composition and sum total. Example

A Waterfall Chart displays rectangles that represent the change in a single value, rather than the magnitude of the value. Example

For more information about MultiTab Bar, MultiTab Column, MultiTab Stacked Bar, and MultiTab Stacked Column charts, see MultiTab Chart Variants.

Combination

Charts in this category combine multiple charts into one display.

A Combination Chart displays multiple values as superimposed Area, Column, Line, Spline, or Spline Area charts. Example

Connection

Charts in this category show connections between source and target nodes.

An Arc Chart displays nodes on an axis and arcs connecting the nodes. Example

The height of an arc is proportional to the distance between its source and target nodes.
The color of an arc indicates the direction of the connection; that is, which connected node is the source and which is the target.
The thickness of an arc line is indicates represents the magnitude of a single value for that connection.

A Chord Chart displays segments around a circle, one for each dimension value, and chords connecting the segments. The thickness of a chord at each end represents the magnitude of a single value where the attached segment is the target. The color of a chord corresponds to the connected segment with the greater output, that is, the greater value where that segment is the source. Example

A Sankey diagram visualizes major transfers or flows within a system. Example

Finance

Charts in this category are typically used to visualize price movements of a security, derivative, or currency. In particular, the charts show the high and low (maximum and minimum) prices as well as the prices at open and at close times.

A Candlestick Chart displays boxes with edges at the open and close values and lines with endpoints at the high and low values. The color of a box represents the direction of movement from open to close: up (white) or down (black). Example

An Open-High-Low-Close Chart displays vertical lines with endpoints at the high and low values. To the left of each vertical line is a tick mark representing the open value, and to the right another tick mark representing the close value. The color of each line represents the direction of movement from open to close: up (green) or down (red). Example

Lines and Points

Charts in this category display values as points, optionally connected by lines. Line charts are best for visualizing change over a temporal or categorical dimension.

A Line Chart draws straight lines between data points. Example

A Scatter Plot displays the relationship between two values. Scatter plots are best for visualizing correlation between variables, the clustering or distribution of data, or anomalies and outliers. Example

TIP: Scatter plot charts are a good choice when you need to show many data points.

A Sparkline Chart is a simplified line chart without labels or axes. They are ideal for small multiples or finding trends at a glance. Example

A Spline Chart draws curved lines between data points. Example

TIP: You can emulate a point chart by using a Line Type and changing the Point Style and Line Style values.

MultiTab

Charts in this category have two categorical axes. They use colors or tile size to show values.

A Heatmatrix uses a color scale to represent a single value for each cell of a matrix. Example

Pies

Charts in this category display values of a single dimension as wedges. By default, they display up to 12 values. If there are more than 12 values, the chart displays the first 11 values, and combines the remaining values in a 12th wedge called Other. They are best for visualizing percent composition or part-to-whole relationships.

Donut Chart Example

Pie Chart Example

Statistics Charts

Statistics charts display the relationship between variables or show the value spread of a specified dimension.

A Box Plot or a Horizontal Box Plot displays the minimum, maximum, median, and first and third quartiles of a distribution for each dimension value. It can also show outliers. Example

MultiTab Chart Variants

In the following multiple value chart types, values are defined when the portlet is configured:

MultiTab Area Chart
MultiTab Spline Area Chart
MultiTab Stacked Area Chart
MultiTab Bar Chart
MultiTab Column Chart
MultiTab Stacked Bar Chart
MultiTab Stacked Column Chart
MultiTab Line Chart
MultiTab Sparkline Chart
MultiTab Spline Chart

Each of these multiple value chart types has a MultiTab variant in which the values are defined not by the portlet configuration, but by a second dimension called category. The chart show one value or color for each distinct value of the category column. In other words, a MultiTab chart shows one value divided into multiple categories.