All you need to know about Column Chart and Bar Charts in Power BI

Let’s start to explore various versions of Column and Bar charts in Power BI. These two charts are fundamental charts to understanding the trends and patterns.

To start with, we need to clarify data into three categories:-

1. Categorical Data or we can say labeled Data like Category, Region
2. Numerical Data like Sales, profit, and Quantity.
3. Date — Year, Date, Month

It is important to note that while creating a chart the X-axis contains Categorical Data, and Y -the axis numerical data.

READABILITY is the most important concern of the selection of the charts.

In Power BI there are various types of Column and Bar Charts listed:-

1. Column Chart
2. Bar Chart
3. Stacked Column Chart
4. Stacked Bar Chart
5. Clustered Column Chart
6. Clustered Bar Chart
7. 100% Stacked Column Chart
8. 100% Stacked Bar Chart

Now we will explore all of the charts in detail where these charts are fit (Readable), OK(not perfect but readable), and unfit(not readable).

The only difference between a Column Chart and a Bar Chart is Orientation nothing else.

Column Chart and Bar Chart:- When we have one categorical (1C) data and one numerical(1N) data best chart to choose is the Column Chart or Bar chart.

Column Chart (Left), Bar Chart(Right) (Best Fit for 1C +1N type of Data)

When dealing with categorical data on both axes, both Column and Bar charts in Power BI typically count the occurrences of categorical data on the Y-axis.

Column Chart (Left), Bar Chart(Right) (OK for 1C +1C(n) type of Data) here n is count

But when we have both numerical data then these charts are unfit to read the data

Column Chart (Left), Bar Chart(Right) (Unfit for 1N +1N type of Data)

Stacked Column Chart or Stacked Bar Chart:- these two charts are similar to Column Chart and Bar Chart the only difference is that when we add a categorical legend to the chart it will make a Stacked Chart

Stacked Column Chart (Left), Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (Best Fit for 1C +1N+1C type of Data)

But when we have three categorical data then we can read it but the chart will make a count of Y-axis categorical data

Stacked Column Chart (Left), Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (OK for 1C +1C(n)+1C type of Data) here n is count

But, when we have 2 numerical data and 1 categorical data or 3 numerical data then these two charts are unfit for them.

Stacked Column Chart (Left), Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (Unfit for 1N +1N +1C/ 1N+1N+1N type of Data)

Clustered Column Chart or Clustered Bar Chart:- For the scenario where the data is equally stacked in stacked charts and the client prefers not to show the labels on the stack then it’s challenging to read or understand the chart. In such cases, Clustered charts proved to be more effective. Clustered Column or Clustered Bar Charts enable users to visualize the distribution of data within each category more clearly. these charts have all the properties same as Stacked charts the only difference is stack and cluster.

Clustered Column Chart (Left), Clustered Bar Chart(Right) (Best Fit for 1C +1N+1C type of Data)

Clustered Column Chart (Left), Clustered Bar Chart(Right) (OK for 1C +1C(n)+1C type of Data) here n is count

Clustered Column Chart (Left), Clustered Bar Chart(Right) (Unfit for 1N +1N +1C/ 1N+1N+1N type of Data)

100 % Stacked Column Chart or 100 % Stacked Bar Chart:- When the objective is to represent the data(1N) in percentage within the category(1C) and with multiple regions(1C), the 100 % stacked column or 100 % bar chart proves to be the most suitable choice.

100% Stacked Column Chart (Left), 100 % Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (Best Fit for 1C +1N%+1C type of Data)

100% Stacked Column Chart (Left), 100% Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (OK for 1C +1C(n)%+1C type of Data) where n is count

100% Stacked Column Chart (Left), 100% Stacked Bar Chart(Right) (Unfit for 1C +1N% +1C(n)/ 1N+1N%+1N type of Data)

Conclusion: Finally, We can say that if we have 1C +1N data without any thought we can choose the Column and Bar charts, and if we have 1C+1N+1C and we want to represent the data in without % and in one stack then the best chart is column and bar stacked chart or want to show in clustered then clustered and lastly if we want to represent the data in % form then we have to choose the 100 % stacked column and bar charts

Happy Learning….!!!

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