It is also worth noting that the zero baseline for a column chart should always be maintained. Alternatively, Column charts can also be used to compare performance against an average benchmark or do a deviation analysis. To Compare negative vs positive valuesĬolumn Charts are excellent at comparing values which tend to go into negatives as well as positives. Stacked column charts are a straightforward way to see such data.Īlternatively, by using a % Stacked Column chart, the contribution can be seen as a percentage measure of the total. All business data needs to get compared, whether itâs for different timelines, geographies, and products, or between multiple members of the same group. Stacked column charts are very helpful in showing the magnitude of how much contribution to the total is coming from the different members of a category (a part-to-whole perspective of the data). Compare contributions of different members of a category Content publishers want to see what sources gave how much traffic over the year, and public bodies want to show development and financial impacts for different units. Source: Data.Worldīusiness owners want to compare the profits of different divisions over time. In this case, the column charts show the percentage of movies coming out in Hollywood from 1980 without women only talking about women. Itâs worth noting that a line chart (the most common type chart for time-series data) can be replaced anytime by a column chart, however the converse isnât always true. Understanding changes happening over a period of time is relatively more natural for the human mind.
To see changes in dependent variables over timeĬolumn charts are excellent for mapping data sets over a period of time. births for a decade, or identifying which products performed best in which region, the column chart is a great fit if you want to compare how different categories are performing against each other. Whether itâs showing sales performance for different geographies, measuring deaths vs. Along with this chart, Delilah has spoken about the best practices of using Column & Bar Charts in great (and really interesting) detail. But, if sorted by the measure, time sequence is lost, which is a major sacrifice.Ĭolumn Charts are great at comparing related entities- in this case, all the days that Delilah from Leff Communications had Bar Trivia Night with her team - â The Stonecuttersâ who usually do pretty awesome. Like, months of a year need to be in sequence to represent itself properly. However be wary that not all data can be sorted, and if forcefully sorted, it comes with some sacrifice in the data. By sorting the columns, users can gain a quick understanding of the highest and lowest categories.
Comparisons allow end users to judge how each category is performing relative to the others. To compare data values of related categoriesĬolumn charts are most useful to compare different categories by a single measure. Since all columns start from the same baseline of zero, it is easy to compare them against each other. Value of each category is encoded by the length of the column. It can also be used to compare data over a period. A column chart is used to compare data values of related categories.