Line Chart

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Last updated 5 years ago

Line Chart

A Line Chart shows a sequence of (possibly weighted) categorical items, connected by a line. Line charts are good for a series of values that are connected in some sense. Note that the ADVIZOR Line Chart is an aggregated chart: all of the rows in the source table with the same category value are combined at the same point on the X axis. Consider using a if you don't want your data aggregated; use a Trend Line in the Scatter Plot to form the line between points. Learn about each Line Chart feature below:

Aggregation: choose what line height represents.

A Line Chart shows distinct field categories on the X axis. The line height on the Y axis depends on the type of aggregation. Height may be proportional to the number of items (rows) with each category value; this is the default.
Alternatively, line height may be proportional to the sum of a numeric weight field, or it may be the average value of a weight field, or the ratio or 2 fields.
From: Chart Toolbar "Configure Data".

Clustered: multiple statistics per category.

Multiple sum-weighting fields may be selected, to create multiple lines in the chart. The color scale used to distinguish the lines may be chosen.
From: Chart Toolbar "Configure Data"; Advanced Property "Cluster Color Scale".

Cumulative: accumulate measure(s) as values progress.

Weights for X axis categories are accumulated (addd to the previous weight) as the chart progresses (toward the right or the bottom). Use this to see a current value as the sum of previous values.
From: Advanced Property "Cumulative measure".

Stacked: color stacking shows breakdown by another field..

If the table shown in the chart is colored by a different field, the colors for that field can be shown "stacked". This lets you see how values in another field are distributed in each category and contribute to the aggregated values. Note that Advanced Property "Pool Weights" (see "Negative Handling" below) must be set to False for the "Stack Colors" property to take effect.
The area below each color stack line can be filled with that color by turning on property "Fill Colors".
Note that the stacked subsets are additive, so they aren't directly comparable like multiple clustered weights.

Orientation: chart direction.

A Line Chart may show categories on the horizontal axis and weights vertically (the default), or the category axis may be oriented vertically and the weights displayed horizontally. The latter provides more space for labels.
From: Chart Toolbar "Rotate chart"; Advanced Property "Orient Horizontal"; "Data Configuration" dialog Measures checkbox "Display Horizontally".

Zooming: manage large numbers of categories.

A Line Chart will scale so that all categories are visible initially. If there is enough space, each category is labeled. As the number of categories increases, they are "packed together" and the zoombar at the bottom of the display may be used to zoom (magnify or de-magnify) or scroll the display.
If there are too many categories to show even as a single pixel, then a bar at the top of the window will indicate overplotting.
You can also suppress the zoombar.
From: Advanced Property "Allow Magnify"; Zoombar

Sizing: how are X axis values fit to the axis?

Categories on the X axis may be sized to all Fit In Window (so that all are visible and scrolling is not required, but overplotting may be necessary if screen resolution is insufficient--the default), at Normal Text size (so there is room to display the label for each category, but scrolling may be required), or at a width of one Pixel each (guaranteeing that all categories are plotted separately, but scrolling may be required).
From: Advanced Property "Line Mode".

Order: what order are points in?

You can choose how the categories are ordered: in Original Order (the order they were encountered in the table), By Label, By Size, By Selected magnitude, or By Percent Selected. If categories are ordered By Selected or By Percent Selected, making a selection can cause the bar order to change. Line Charts should rarely be in other than By Label order.
Ordering may also be reversed by any of these criteria (e.g., Reverse By Size, Reverse By Label, ...).
A "Secondary Bar Order" may also be specified, which has an effect if multiple categories have the same precedence under the primary ordering scheme. For instance, if "Bar Order" is By Percent Selected, and several categories are completely selected and several are completely unselected, the selected and unselected subsets would be grouped and each ordered by the Secondary Bar Order.
(Note that Line Charts and Bar Charts share many characteristics, and Line Charts can display categories as connected bars via the Advanced Property "Bar Width", which is specified as a percentage of the space between categories.)

Labeling: how are points labeled?

You can control which points are labeled. By default, Best Fit mode is used, where as many category labels are shown as will fit without overlapping. Alternatively, you may "Label All Bars", Turn Labels Off, or Label Selected (or partially selected) categories.
From: Advanced Property "Label Mode".

Label size: how big are my labels?

You can control how much of your category labels are visible. By default, the chart tries to balance the amount of screen space devoted to the data graphics and to labels. This may cause long labels to be cut off. You can adjust this size by moving the mouse over the X axis until it changes to a double-headed arrow; then use the left mouse button to drag the axis to the location you want.
Changing orientation may also provide more space for labels.
From: Mouse interaction on X axis.

Goal Lines: show performance versus a target.

A Goal Line is a line parallel to the X axis that shows a target level. There may be multiple Goal Lines in a Line Chart. Goal Lines are set at a particular Y axis value. The goal line may be used to select all categories above or below the goal.

Locate: where am I?

The coordinates of the mouse while within the area where the lines are drawn are continuously shown on the X and Y axes. Move the mouse over the chart to see this.

Customizable Focus: what is this item?

You focus on a category by pointing at the point on the line for a second; a box with details for the current item pops up. (Holding the CTRL or SHIFT key causes immediate display of focus.)
From: Advanced Property "Focus Format String".

Text: labels and titles.

Text for the chart title and axis titles may be changed, along with the text font. Display of the title is optional.

Show Unselected: included Unselected categories?

Unselected categories may be omitted. This is especially useful for focusing on selected data if there are a large number of categories.

Negative Handling: how are negative values aggregated?

Positive aggregate values are shown by points above the axis, and negative values by points below the axis. Categories that contain both negative and positive weight values can be shown in two ways: "pooled" or "separated". In a "pooled" display (the default), the positive and negative amounts are summed and a single point is displayed. In "separated" mode, negative and positive values are separately aggregated and shown as two points connected to two lines on opposite sides of the axis. Separated mode can reveal the magnitude of negative and positive components of a total that are otherwise hidden by the net.
From: Advanced Property "Pool Weights".

Measure Labels: how data points are labelled.

Data points may be labelled with their Y axis weight value. Labels are never drawn to overlap, so a subset of labels is automatically chosen. In the Advanced Properties pane, you can choose which of 4 measures to show ("Bar Label Measure"), the font for the labels ("Bar Label Font"), and specify if large numeric values should be shortened ("Bar Label Abbreviated"). Options for "Bar Label Measure" are "Percent of Category", "Percent of Total", "Selected Weight", "Total Weight", and "No Label". In the toolbar below the chart, you can also choose which measure to show.

Last updated 5 years ago