Stacked bar
Composition per category. What the stacked bar is for, the data it needs and every option it has.
2 min read
On this page
Composition per category. It sits in the Comparison group of the widget library.
When to use it#
Use a stacked bar when each category has a total made of parts: monthly spending split by category, balances per bank split by account, or income per quarter split by client. You see both the total and what drives it.
When to pick something else#
- Only the parts' shares matter? Use a 100% stacked bar.
- Comparing the parts to each other precisely? Use a Grouped bar; only the bottom segment shares a baseline.
- Many dates? Use a Stacked area.
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.
Stacked bar 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: position, layout and which series show.
- Axes: titles, tick labels and number format.
- Grid, title, padding and background.
- Value labels on the marks.
- Categories and labels: top N with "Other", sort order, readable labels, the handwritten callout.
- Style: corner radius, line width, opacity and animation.
- Tooltip on hover.
- Click to filter: clicking a mark can filter the rest of the dashboard. See Filters and cross-filtering.
- Colours: follow the dashboard palette or pick one for this chart.
Messy data#
- Without a series field it draws plain single bars.
- Negative parts stack below zero and positive parts above, so a month with refunds shows both.
- More than 8 series: the 7 largest keep their colour and the rest merge into Other.
- Categories that don't fit fold into one Other (N) bar; dates never fold.
- The tooltip lists each part plus a Total.
On a phone#
Stacked bars keep their meaning at phone width because the total still reads as one bar. The legend moves below the chart and may be cut to "+N more", so keep phone versions to about four parts.
Related charts#
- Bar chart: Horizontal categorical bars
- Column chart: Vertical categorical bars
- Grouped bar: Side-by-side bars per series
- 100% stacked bar: Composition as percentage
- Lollipop: Bars with circle endpoints
- Dot plot: Discrete category dots
- Bullet chart: Single value with target bands
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