Chart Types Primer

• Pie Chart
• Half Pie Chart
• Ring Chart
• Half Ring Chart
• Bar Chart
• Butterfly Chart
• Histogram Chart
• Stacked Chart
• Scatter Chart
• Line Chart
• Bubble Chart
• Packed Bubble Chart
• Bubble Pie Chart
• Geo Map Charts
  • Map Scatter Chart
  • Map Bubble Chart
  • Map Pie Chart
  • Map Bubble Pie Chart
  • Map Filled Chart
• Heat Map Chart
• Combination Chart
• Area Chart
• Funnel Chart
• Web Chart

You can create various types of charts such as Area, Bar, Bubble, Line, Pie, Stacked, Scatter, Funnel, Web and 3D charts by simply dragging and dropping the required columns into the respective shelves in the design area. 

Before we proceed any further into understanding the chart types and the combination of columns that can be used to create them, it is necessary that we first know about the functions associated with each column.

Listed below are the associated functions used in Zoho Analytics:

• Dimension: a column that has discrete values (eg. String and date column).
• Aggregate: a column with an aggregate function applied contains aggregate values like sum, average etc. This even includes aggregate formula columns.
• Measure: Measure column is nothing but a column containing numerical values that can be measured.

The chart designer looks as shown below. You can create charts by dragging and dropping the columns in their respected shelves. To know much more in detail about creating charts, you can refer to this help documentation. 

The chart types that are not applicable for the combination of columns that you use while creating the chart wil be disabled. Let us now see in detail about each chart type and the combination of column types used to create them.

Pie Chart

Pie charts are used to represent a percentage or proportional data. A pie chart can be converted to any of its equivalents like ring chart, funnel chart, bar chart, line chart, scatter chart, area chart or web chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a pie chart.

Example: Region wise Profit. 

Half Pie Chart

The Half Pie Chart is similar to the pie chart but has a semi-circular shape. This chart is used to represent a percentage or proportional data. It can be converted to any of its equivalents like pie chart, ring chart, funnel chart, bar chart, line chart, scatter chart, area chart or web chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a half pie chart. 

Example: Region wise Sales. 

Ring Chart

Ring chart or otherwise called as a doughnut chart is used to represent data in rings. A ring chart displays the contribution of each value to the overall total expressed in percentage. Ring chart can be converted to any of its equivalents like pie chart, funnel chart, bar chart, line chart, scatter chart, area chart or web chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a ring chart.

Example:  Region-wise sales%

Half Ring Chart

Half Ring chart is used to represent data in half rings. This displays the contribution of each value to the overall total expressed in percentage. Half ring chart can be converted to any of its equivalents like pie chart, half pie chart, ring chart, funnel chart, bar chart, line chart, scatter chart, area chart or web chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a half ring chart.

Example:  Sales on Businessdays

Bar Chart

Bar charts are used when you have to compare data classified into discrete groups. They are generally used to categorize data or represent two or more metrics of a particular category. They display values as individual bars whose height is determined by the value plotted and grouped by each category. A Bar chart can be converted into any of its equivalents like Line, Scatter, Area, Stacked Bar, Stacked Area or Combo chart depending on the category.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a bar chart.

Example: Product Category wise sales

Learn more about Bar Charts and how to create them.

Butterfly Chart

A butterfly chart (also referred as Tornado chart or Divergent chart) is a type of bar chart used to compare two data sets at a time. This chart plots the data as two horizontal bars with the same X-axis in the center, resembling the butterfly wings.

This will be useful in comparing two data sets contrasting each other such as male vs female, income vs expense, positive vs negative, completed on time vs overdue, etc.,

The following combinations of column types are possible when creating butterfly charts.

Learn more about Butterfly Charts and how to create them.

Histogram Chart

Histogram Chart is a special form of bar chart where the values are plotted over continuous rather than discrete categories and useful to plot frequency distributions.  

The following combinations of column types are possible when creating Histogram charts.

Learn more about Histogram Charts and how to create them.

Stacked Chart

A Stacked chart allows you to easily analyze the patterns and trends in your data by comparing the parts of your dataset to the whole. In other words, it plots the contribution of each value to the total across categories. There are two types of stacked charts - Stacked Bar and Stacked Area. 

Stacked Bar Chart

The following combination of column types allows you to create a stacked bar chart.

Example: Quarter wise sales for each region.

Learn more about Stacked Bar Charts and how to create them.

Stacked Area Chart

YThe following combination of column types allows you to create a stacked area chart.

Example: Yearly profit obtained for each product category

Scatter Chart

Scatter charts are commonly used for plotting and comparing numeric values, such as scientific, statistical, and engineering data. It is generally used for comparison between two numerical axes with uneven intervals and ranges. You can interchange a scatter chart with a line chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a scatter chart.

Example: Temperature Vs Rainfall

Line Chart

A line chart is used to analyze series trend across a time period. You can interchange a line chart with a scatter chart.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a line chart.

Example: Sales vs Cost vs Profit.

Bubble Chart

Bubble charts are really useful if you want to visualize your data highlighting the magnitude/weight of a data point with sizing. You can use a bubble chart wherever a Scatter plot is used, with scatters points being replaced by bubbles. The size of the bubble will be determined by the data column dropped in the new Size shelf of the Chart designer.

The following combination of column types allows you to create  a bubble chart.

Example: Sales of each State by Product Category

Packed Bubble Chart

The Packed Bubble chart type is used to display data in a cluster of circles or bubbles. They are used to display the values disregarding the axes. The difference between a normal bubble chart and a packed bubble is that the latter is tightly packed rather than spread over a grid. You can use a packed bubble chart to visualize large amount of data in a small space.

The following combination of column types allows you to create a packed bubble chart.

Example: Region-wise Sales metric for each Quarter

Bubble Pie Chart

Bubble Pie Chart is a combination of pie and bubble charts. The data column dropped in the Size shelf determines the size of the bubble.  Other aggregation will be plotted as a proportional division of the bubble. It is a useful way to display data with multiple variables.

Example: Sales by Card Type across State. 

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