Bar Charts (Workbooks)

IMPORTANT: This document is specific to Sigma Workbooks. If you instead want to learn about this topic in worksheets, please visit Visualize Your Data (Worksheets).

Summary of Content

Plot a Bar Chart
      Required Fields
      Marks
      Bar Orientation
      Stacked Bar Variations
Format Options
      Show Data Labels
Conditional Formatting
      Add a New Rule
      Rule Prioritization
            Example
Related Resources

Plot a Bar Chart

Visualizations can be created via the PAGE ELEMENTS section of your workbook's editor panel or directly from an existing data element. 

Visualized data will not display on the page canvas until all required plot fields are defined.

Add columns to open fields using either the field's + menu or dragging and dropping the column.

Required Fields

• X-AXIS (1 column)
• Y-AXIS (1+ columns)
  Columns added to the Y-AXIS field are aggregated by default. Aggregation type (e.g. Sum vs Count) is dependent on the original column’s value type (e.g. text, number, date, etc).
  For example, a numeric column such as 'Sales Amount' will create a new calculated column, 'Sum of Sales Amount' (e.g. Sum([Sales Amount])).

Marks

• COLOR (1)
• TOOLTIP (1+)
• TRELLIS (1 TRELLIS ROW and/or 1 TRELLIS COLUMN)

Bar Orientation (Horizontal vs Vertical)

Bar charts can be displayed both vertically and horizontally. 

To select your chart’s orientation, select either the ‘display vertical’ or ‘display horizontal’ icon buttons in the chart’s editor panel view.

Stacked Bar Variations

Bar charts support three stack variations: no stacking, stacked, and stacked 100%. 

To create a stacked bar chart, first add a column to the COLOR field. Then optionally select one of the three stack options from the top of the chart’s editor panel view, if you are not satisfied with the default stack arrangement.

Format Options

To begin editing a visualization's format options, select the visualization to open its editor panel view. Then click the paint brush icon at the top of the editor panel.

The following Format options are available for bar charts:

• Title
• X-Axis
• X-Axis
• Legend
• Data Labels
• Reference Lines
  
• Gaps
  
  

Show Data Labels

1. Open the chart’s editor panel view, and click the paintbrush icon to open the format settings. 
2. Click DATA LABELS.
3. Click Show data labels.
4. [optional]  Use the dropdown menus to customize the labels’ color, orientation, position or font. 
   
   
   

Conditional Formatting

Add a New Rule

1. Select the chart to open its editor panel view.
   
2. Under MARKS > COLOR, click + Add rule.
   
   
3.  A new undefined rule will appear. Click to edit.
   
4. In the popup:
   • Select a column to apply the rule to (Apply to).
   • Define your Formatting rule.
   • Click the paint bucket icon to select a color. 
     
     
     

Rule Prioritization

If multiple rules are applied to a single column, you may need to order your rules by precedence.  Rules higher in the list take precedence over their lower peers. 

Drag and drop rules to reorder them.

Example

In the example below, Rule #1 colors all bars with a value > 1,000,000 green. Rule #2 colors all bars with a value > 0 purple. Rule #1 applies to only a select set of bars in the visualization. However, Rule #2 applies to all bars.

Scenario #1: If Rule #1 is listed first, it will take precedence over Rule #2. All bars that fit the criteria of Rule #1 will be colored green. Rule #2 cannot override this higher rule and will only checked against and applied to the remaining bars.

Scenario #2:  If Rule #2 is listed first, it will take precedence over Rule #1. In this case, Rule #2 happens to apply to every bar. All bars will be colored purple, including bars that would have otherwise matched Rule #1. 

Related Resources

Intro to Building Visualizations