Insights Chapter 4 : Bar Charts

Bar Charts are the most basic type of charts. They are used when you want to compare different categories.

In order to create bar charts, you need 1 dimension and 1 measure.

For example, if you want to see number of orders per project then you would use a bar chart, as they will help you compare which project needs most resources.

The above figure is a bar chart with horizontal bars. The different bars will represent different projects and the height of the bars will be the value of the “count of total work orders“. Generally use this bar chart when you have a lot categories to look at.

However, in case of fewer categories you could also use a column chart. This chart presents the data in a similar fashion.

You can edit the colours by going to Edit → Series

 You can edit the X Axis Name by going to Edit → X

The same with the Y Axis Name. You can edit it by going to Edit → Y

When you add a second dimension to the above chart, you can create 3 other types of Bar Charts as shown below. 

In the above case now if you want to see orders by Projects and Suppliers. You can create: 

Grouped Bar Charts : The first dimension you choose forms the groups. Colours are used to represent the second dimension. The height of the bars will be based on the value of the measure you  choose. In this case, the suppliers are represented by the colour and the projects forms the groups where the height of the bars is the value of the measure “Total Work Orders“.

Stacked Bar Charts : The first dimension you choose forms the groups. Colours are used to represent the second dimension. In a Stacked Bar Chart, results are stacked on top of each other. The height of the bars by colour will be based on the value of the measure you choose. In this case you can see that the total height of the bars is the same as the work orders/project. Within a project, the number of orders that need to be fulfilled per supplier is represented by the different colours.

Stacked Percentage Bar Charts : The height of all the bars are scaled to 100% to show the proportion of the second dimension in groups formed by first dimension. In this case, the chart shows each supplier (each representing a different colour) and displays  the proportion of the orders that they will fulfil.

e.g. “AB Supplier” will fulfil 63% of orders on the project “3 Weeds Hotel“ 

For more information, please see the video below.