Step line

Discrete jumps over time. It sits in the Time series group of the widget library.

When to use it#

Use a step line for values that hold steady and then jump: an account balance between transactions, a credit limit, or an interest rate. Each value stays flat until the next, so the chart never suggests a gradual change that didn't happen.

When to pick something else#

• Values that genuinely change continuously, such as a share price? Use a Line chart.
• Comparing totals per period? Use a Column chart.
• Showing how several balances add up to a total? 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.

Rows that share a category are combined before drawing: choose Sum, Average, Count, Min or Max on the value field. See Binding data.

Step line 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#

• Values on the same date are summed by default. For balances, set the value's aggregate to Last.
• A missing value breaks the line; it does not step down to zero.
• Dates are evenly spaced in order, so a period with no rows is skipped rather than shown as a long flat step.
• The last value is extended half a step so a single change at the end is still visible.
• More than 8 series: the 7 largest keep their colour and the rest merge into Other.
• No numeric values shows "No numbers to show".

On a phone#

At full phone width it reads like a line chart: fewer axis labels with many dates, legend below the chart. Keep phone versions to two or three series; overlapping steps are hard to tell apart.

Related charts#

• Line chart: Time series over any field
• Area chart: Stacked or overlaid area
• Sparkline: Tiny inline trend
• Stacked area: Series stacked over time
• Stream graph: Centered stacked area