Working with Bar Charts
About Bar Charts
A bar chart displays data by using bars. The height of each bar represents the value.
Data Roles for a Bar Chart
The basic data roles for a bar chart are categories and measures. You can assign one
category only, and the category values
are plotted on the category axis. You can assign many measures, and the measure values are plotted on the response axis. If a bar chart contains no measures, then the frequency of the category values is
plotted on the response axis.
In addition to the basic
data roles, you can assign these roles:
Group
groups the data based on the values of the category data item that you assign. Depending on the value that you selected for the Grouping style property,
the group values are shown as either individual bars or as segments
of each bar.
Note: Grouping is not available
if you assign multiple measures to the visualization.
creates a lattice of charts with a column for each value of the category data item that you assign.
Lattice rows
creates a lattice of charts with a row for each value of the category data item that
you assign.
Specify Properties for a Bar Chart
On the Properties tab,
you can specify the following options:
Name
specifies the name of the visualization.
Title
specifies the title
that appears above the graph.
Generate graph title
specifies that the graph title is generated automatically based on the data items
in the visualization.
displays grid lines for each tick on the response axis.
Bar direction
specifies whether the
bars are vertical or horizontal.
Frequency
specifies whether the
frequency is displayed as a count (Count)
or as a percentage (Percent).
Note: The frequency values are
based on the data that is shown in the visualization (after filters
and other data selections have been applied).
Note: This option has no effect
if a measure is assigned to the visualization.
Grouping style
specifies how grouped
data is displayed. If you select Stack, then the values of the grouping variable are displayed as segments of each bar. If you select Cluster, then each value
of the grouping variable is displayed as a separate bar.
Note: This option is disabled if
no data item is assigned to the Group role.
specifies whether the measures share a single response axis (Shared axis)
or have separate response axes for each measure (Separate
axes).
Note: The Measure layout option
is disabled if your visualization contains exactly one measure.
Overview
specifies whether the chart overview is enabled.
Show data labels
shows the data values as text in the visualization.
Note: You can always view a data
value as a data tip when you position the cursor over a data value.
displays the category
labels at an angle.
Note: The Rotate axis labels option has no effect when you select a horizontal
bar orientation.
Reference Lines
adds reference lines to the visualization. To create a reference line, click 
, and then specify the parameters for the line in
the New Reference Line window.
, and then specify the parameters for the line in
the New Reference Line window.
The name of each reference line appears below the Reference Lines option.
You can edit or delete your reference lines by using the icons next
to each name.
Sort Data Values
By default, a bar chart is sorted in descending order by the value of the first measure. To change the sorting, right-click on the data item that you want to sort on, and then select Sort
sort-method. For a grouped bar chart, the data is sorted by the category values in alphabetical order.
sort-method. For a grouped bar chart, the data is sorted by the category values in alphabetical order.
Note: If the visualization contains
a rank, then, by default, the data is sorted based on the values of
the rank.
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Last updated: January 8, 2019