---
title: "Dot plot"
description: "Discrete category dots. What the dot plot is for, the data it needs and every option it has."
section: "Widgets"
canonical: "https://banksync.io/docs/widgets/chart-dot"
specs: ["dashboards"]
operationBindings: [{"capability":"dashboards","operation":"dashboards.author"}]
---

Discrete category dots. It sits in the **Comparison** group of the widget library.

![Example dot plot on a BankSync dashboard](https://cdn.banksync.io/screenshots/docs/charts/dot.b0146ed77a92dc5b.png)

## When to use it

Use a dot plot to compare values across categories where zero is not a meaningful starting point, such as the average transaction size per merchant or the closing balance of each account. The axis fits the data rather than starting at zero, so small differences between categories stay visible. A colour field compares a few groups, such as this year against last.

## When to pick something else

- Totals where the length from zero matters? Use a **Column chart** or **Lollipop**.
- Seeing how individual values spread within each category? Use a **Strip plot** or **Beeswarm**.
- A trend over time? Use a **Line chart**.

## The data it needs

Pick these in the **Data** tab of the inspector. BankSync suggests a column for each when your source has an obvious match.

| Field      | Needed   | Pick                 | Notes |
| ---------- | -------- | -------------------- | ----- |
| **X axis** | Yes      | a category or a date |       |
| **Y axis** | Yes      | a number             |       |
| **Series** | Optional | a category           |       |
| **Color**  | Optional | a category           |       |

Rows that share a category are combined before drawing: choose **Sum**, **Average**, **Count**, **Min** or **Max** on the value field. See [Binding data](/docs/widgets/binding-data).

## Dot plot options

This chart has no options of its own; everything on its **Style** tab is the shared chart styling below.

## Shared chart styling

Every chart also has the shared styling options. These apply to this one:

- [Legend](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#legend): position, layout and which series show.
- [Axes](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#axes): titles, tick labels and number format.
- [Grid](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#grid), [title](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#title), [padding](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#padding) and [background](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#background).
- [Value labels](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#value-labels) on the marks.
- [Categories and labels](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#categories-and-labels): top N with "Other", sort order, readable labels, the handwritten callout.
- [Style](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#style): corner radius, line width, opacity and animation.
- [Tooltip](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#tooltip) on hover.
- Click to filter: clicking a mark can filter the rest of the dashboard. See [Filters and cross-filtering](/docs/dashboards/filters-and-cross-filtering).
- [Colours](/docs/widgets/chart-styling#palette): follow the dashboard palette or pick one for this chart.

## Messy data

- By default values in the same category and colour are added together into one dot. Turn aggregation off to plot each row as its own dot.
- Overlapping dots are nudged sideways, never along the value axis.
- Rows without a number are skipped; if none are left you see "No numbers to show".
- Very large tables are thinned evenly to 2,000 dots.
- When categories don't fit, the rarest fold into "Other (n)". More than nine colour groups keep the eight largest and put the rest in "Other".

## On a phone

Long category names switch it to horizontal rows, and more categories fold into "Other".

## Related charts

- [Bar chart](/docs/widgets/chart-bar): Horizontal categorical bars
- [Column chart](/docs/widgets/chart-column): Vertical categorical bars
- [Grouped bar](/docs/widgets/chart-grouped-bar): Side-by-side bars per series
- [Stacked bar](/docs/widgets/chart-stacked-bar): Composition per category
- [100% stacked bar](/docs/widgets/chart-normalized-stacked-bar): Composition as percentage
- [Lollipop](/docs/widgets/chart-lollipop): Bars with circle endpoints
- [Bullet chart](/docs/widgets/chart-bullet): Single value with target bands