Documentation Charts FAQs

Table formats for Bar, Line, and Area charts

Bar, Area, and Line charts all accept a similar table format. Here’s a brief explanation of the types of table formats these charts accept, along with chart examples.

In Visual SQL
In Data Explorer

In the Visual SQL interface

One aggregated column and one grouped column

One aggregated column and one grouped column:

The first column (the grouped column) maps to the x-axis
The second column (the aggregated column) maps to the y-axis

Example Bar chart with two columns

One aggregated column and two grouped columns

To make this result set compatible with Bar charts, you need to use a Pivot Action on the second column (the second grouped column). This turns the second column’s values into column headers.

The first (grouped) column maps to the x-axis
After the Pivot, subsequent columns map to the y-axis and are grouped and labeled by their column name.

Example chart with two groups and one aggregate

Pivot with two aggregated columns

Pivoting on a result set with more than three columns is currently unavailable in Visual SQL.

Multiple aggregated columns and one grouped column

The first column maps to the x-axis
Subsequent columns map to the y-axis and are grouped and labeled by their column name
Tooltip displays second through last column’s values when hovering on the chart preview

Example chart with one group and two aggregates

Number of lines in a Bar Line chart

For an example of Bar Line chart with multiple lines, check out our Dual axis Line charts article.

In the Data Explorer interface

One measure grouped by one dimension

The first column maps to x-axis.
The second column maps to y-axis.

Chart, one measure & two dimensions

Sample table

Table, one measure & two dimensions

One measure grouped by two dimensions

Add a Pivot step, which allows the second column’s values to each become a new column. View an example of a Pivot here.
The first column maps to x-axis.
After the Pivot, subsequent columns map to the y-axis and are grouped and labeled by their column name.

Chart, one measure & two dimensions

Sample table (before and after Pivot step)

Table with two dimensions and one measure before and after Pivot

Pivot with two measures

First, let’s take a look at an example chart before and after a Pivot. Our example chart is grouped by two dimensions: Date and Customer. There are two aggregate columns: Amount and Count of Orders.

Before the Pivot step

After the Pivot step

Here’s what our chart looks like in the Data Explorer:

Chart in Data Explorer

The second dimension, Customer, is pivoted so the values are displayed/grouped with our column headers for our measures (Amount and Count of Orders). This type of pivot requires the following criteria:

Grouped by exactly two dimensions
Two or more measures (aggregates)
Second (pivoted) dimension must have a limited number of values, otherwise, it will produce a large number of columns. (The limit in Chartio is 200 columns per table chart, though you would likely want far fewer than that to produce for legibility.)

Multiple measures grouped by one dimension

First column maps to x-axis.
Subsequent columns are mapped to the y-axis, and are grouped and labeled by their column name.
Tooltip displays second through last column on hover.

Chart, multiple measures & one dimension

Sample table

Table, multiple measures & one dimension