What kind of charts exist?

It’s not too difficult to create a chart, but you need to choose the type that best reflects our data. Excel has a multitude of charts, and every one of them suits best certain types of data. In the text that follows you will meet most commonly used charts, with suggestions on how to choose the right one that will meet your needs.

In order to start creating a chart, you need to first select the data, then choose the Recommended Charts option from the Insert ribbon, and then select the All Charts tab. Recommended Charts is an option through which Excel recommends the type of chart that is most suitable for the selected data, and the All Charts option shows all variants of the charts.

The first two offered types are Column and Bar. These are similar types, only the first is laid vertically (columns) and the other horizontally (bars). These are most common charts and they are suitable when we’re presenting one or more series of data. They also exist in, somehow more attractive, 3D variants. When we make them based on several series of data, they can be separated (Clustered) or bound series (Stacked). Clustered series means that each of them represents a separate column, while in stacked series all of them are part of one column/bar of data, which size corresponds to sum of all individual values within it. Also, when it comes to stacked series, there are 100% Stacked charts. They are characterized by a fixed size, and size of each series is proportional to their participation (in percent) in a whole. Whether you use columns or bars depends most on personal taste, but I always recommend users to use bars when data is used to visualize series with long name labels.

Line and Area charts follow, which also exist in traditional and 3D variant. Based on my experience, this type of chart is most suitable for displaying the movement of values ​​(turnover, margin, contribution) over a period of time. The line chart also contains a sub-category that displays key points (Markers). Key points are useful for highlighting values ​​at a certain point in time.

Pie is the type of chart that is most suitable for simple diagrams showing the share of each of the values ​​in relation to the sum. Pies are usually made on the basis of a single data series. If we make them based on several series, each “piece” will be the sum of the values ​​of the series. Pies have several subspecies: 3D pie, Pie of Pie, Bar of Pie and Doughnut. The last three types of pies are better suited to display charts with more series.

XY (Scatter) is a type of graph that is used when we have two data series, which are depicted on the X and Y axis of the graph. The subtypes of this type of chart differ by whether the markers are connected to straight or curved lines. Also, one of the subspecies of this chart is the Bubble, which offers the third series in terms of the dimensions of the bubble.

Action (Stock) is a specific type of chart to represent the data series that contain the highest value, the lowest value, and the final value of the bonds. As his name suggests, this type of chart is suitable for displaying stock data. Surface and Radar are two atypical types of charts. They are ideal for displaying charts based on three, or two series of data.

Excel 2016 brought several new chart types, which are reserved for traditional tables and can not be used to create a Pivot chart. First of all, it is Waterfall, which is ideal for showing inflow and outflow of money over a year. The Pareto Chart (Histogram) is a combination of two charts showing the schedule of data frequencies and cumulative value growth. Box & Whisker is a chart that performs statistical analysis of data and is ideal for analyzing future values. Treemap is a chart that displays the hierarchy of data in relation to the size of the series, and Sunburst displays a higher level hierarchy, similar to a “doughnut”, where the width of the arc represents the sum of the value of the series. These charts will be detailed in the next few “recipes”.

Finally, it also offers a combination of several types of charts in one (Combo). It is a multi-series chart, with one or more series being shown on the secondary axis.