Summary: Stacked Column Charts are very widely used to visualize data with one or two dimensions and one metric. One very useful setting is to set the y-axis as a percentage, allowing you to see how the share or each segment changes across each value on x axis.
Stacked Columns charts are a variation of column charts. Your data needs to have at least 2 dimensions and one metric to be represented in a Stacked column chart. The first dimension will be on the X axis and the second dimension would be represented by multiple stacked areas with different colors, repeated for each value of the first dimension.
Stacked column charts can also have one dimension and multiple metrics. In this case the dimension will be on the X axis and the metrics would be represented by multiple stacked areas with different colors, repeated for each value of the first dimension.
Chart Options
| Option | Explanation |
|---|---|
| X Axis | The Dimension used to populate the X axis values. |
| Series | This will show the values of the segments of the second dimension (each will be drawn in a different color). |
| Switch X-Axis/ Series | Provides an alternative view of the chart by switching between the dimension used to populate the X axis and the one used to populate the stacked segments draw with different colors. |
| Y Axis as Percentage | Draws all values as percentages of total, rather than absolute values. This allows comparing percentages of segments across each point in the X Axis. |
| Show Data Labels | Will show numeric data labels for each data point in your chart. |
| Numbers Format | Change the format of the numbers used in the Axes, data labels and on-hover data call-outs of the chart. |
| Legend Location | Select the location for the legend that shows the color coding of the colored stacked segments. |
| Sort X-Axis | Select the value by which you would like to sort the X axis. This can be the X axis dimension or the value of any of the segments from the second dimension. |
| Sort Order | Choose ascending or descending order. This is only available if you select a value to sort by in the previous option. |
| Limit Number of X Axis Values | This limits the number of values that are drawn across the x Axis. By default, the stacked column chart is limited to 50 segments |
| Show Other category for X Axis | This aggregates all values that fall beyond the limited number of X Axis Values into one category called “Other”. This is useful for charts where the higher values are consolidated within the first few segments, as it will aggregate all other segments into other and show as a separate column in the graph. This option is only available if there is a limit set to the number of X Axis values. |
| Limit Number of Series | This limits the number of series that are drawn within each column. By default, the stacked column chart is limited to 50 segments |
| Show Other category for Series | This aggregates all values that fall beyond the limited number of series into one category called “Other”. This is useful for charts where the higher values are consolidated within the first few segments, as it will aggregate all other segments into other and show as a separate point in the graph. This option is only available if there is a limit set to the number of series. |
| Rows Per Page | Allows to separate the chart into pages. You can go to the next or previous page by the links on the top right corner of the chart. |