Using Line Charts

Line charts help you compare data over time or compare changes over the same time period for more than one group or category.

For example, you can use line charts in one of these scenarios:

To display one measure over a time period, such as printer throughput by month.
To display multiple measures over a time period, such as printer throughput and ink consumption by month.
To display one measure for a dimension over a time period, such as the number of errors for each printer by day.

Several types of line charts are available:

Line chart: Regular line charts show the individual values of a set of measures or dimensions against the range displayed by the y-axis. Each value is represented as a line.
Area line chart: In area line charts, each value is represented as a colored area instead of just a line, to make it easier to compare item values. The area between the line and the x-axis is filled with color.
Stacked area line chart: In stacked area line charts, the area between the line and the x-axis is filled with color and the individual lines are layered to show the relationships between them more clearly. The values on the y-axis show the scale of the differences between data points. Use stacked area line charts to compare changes in values for one or more groups of measures or dimensions over a time period.

Line charts show up to 10,000 data points on the x-axis when no color field is selected. When a color field is included, line charts show up to 400 data points on the x-axis and up to 25 data points for color.

To create a line chart:

Click , the Dashboards tab.
Click Dashboard Designer, in the bottom-left corner.
On the Analyses dialog, click New analysis or click , the Options button, next to an existing analysis and select Edit.
On the analysis page, click , the Add visual button, on the toolbar.
Click the icon for the type of line chart that you want to create.
- Line chart
- Area line chart
- Stacked area line chart
Add data to the visual by dragging fields from the Data panel to the appropriate field wells in the Visuals panel.
- To create a single-measure line chart, drag a dimension to the X axis field well and one measure to the Value field well.
- To create a multi-measure line chart, drag a dimension to the X axis field well and two or more measures to the Value field well.
  When you add more than one measure in the Value field well, each item is represented as a separate line in the chart and is automatically added to the chart legend. If one of the fields uses a considerably different scale, you can display it on the right axis. Click , the Options button, next to the field and select Show on: Right Y-axis.
- To create a multi-dimension line chart, drag a dimension to the X axis field well, one measure to the Value field well, and one dimension to the Color field well.
To add drill-down layers, drag at least one more field to the X axis or Color field wells.
Optional: To divide the visual into several smaller visuals, each with a different view of the same data, drag a dimension from the Data panel to the Small Multiples field well.
Each copy of the visual shows a different data view based on the selected dimension. This function is useful when you want to display multiple comparative visuals side by side. For example, you can create a set of visuals that show a different data view for every location.

This function is not available for area line charts.
Customize the appearance of the visual in the Properties panel on the right.
1. Under Display Settings, format the title and subtitle.
  For more information, see Formatting Titles and Subtitles in Visuals.
2. If you added fields to the Small Multiples field well to display multiple visuals side by side, configure the formatting settings available under Multiples Options.
  - Under Layout, set the number of rows and columns that are visible without scrolling and the maximum number of panels.
  - To specify whether the visuals use shared or independent axes, select Shared or Independent under X-axis and Y-axis.
    If the visuals use an independent x-axis, only the values that are relevant to each panel are shown on the axis. For example, if the panels display data per shift, each panel shows only the data for a specific shift. If the visuals use an independent y-axis, each panel has its own y-axis scale that depends on the range of the data it contains.
  - To set the label position for shared axes, select Outside or Inside under X-axis labels and Y-axis labels.
  - To display panel titles, enable the Panel title option and set the title size, color, style, and alignment.
  - To display panel borders, enable the Panel border option and set the border thickness, type, and color.
  - To display panel gutters, enable the Panel gutter option and set the spacing.
  - To set a background color for the panels, enable the Panel background option and select a color.
3. Under Data series, specify formatting settings for the data series.
  - In regular line charts, to change the base style used for all the data series, click Base style. In the Edit base style panel, you can hide or display the lines and markers and set their size, color, and style. You can also specify whether to show the data on the left or on the right y-axis.
    To customize the format of a specific data series, click Select series to style and select a field from the list.
  - In area charts, all the data series are displayed in a list and you can specify whether to show the data on the left or on the right y-axis.
  You can also select a data series directly in the visual and use the options from the menu to apply styling and color settings.
4. Under X-axis and Y-axis, configure the axes, the grid lines, and the range and scale.
  - Under X-axis, enter the maximum number of data points in the Number of data points to show field and enable the Show date gaps option if you want to include date gaps in the chart.
  - Under Y-axis, specify how missing data points are displayed in the chart by selecting one of the options available for Missing data.
    To display a continuous line by skipping over the missing data point and connecting the line to the next available data point in the series, select Continuous line. The Show date gaps option under X-axis must be disabled.
    
    To display a disjointed line that breaks when a data point is missing, select Broken line.
    
    To set the value of the missing data point to zero, select Show as zero.
  - If the chart has two y-axes, you can format each y-axis separately under Left Y-axis and Right Y-axis. You can also combine the y-axes into a single axis by enabling the Single Y-axis option.
  For information on the other available settings, see Formatting Axes and Grid Lines in Visuals and Configuring Range and Scale in Visuals.
5. Under Group/Color, enter the maximum number of lines to display.
  The remaining data is grouped under the Other category. To hide the Other category from the chart, click , the Menu options button, in the corner of the visual, and select Hide "other" categories.
6. Under Reference lines, add reference lines if there are other values that you want to display along with the chart data.
  For more information, see Adding Reference Lines to Visuals.
7. Under Legend, format the legend.
  For more information, see Formatting Legends in Visuals.
8. Under Data labels, format the labels.
  For more information, see Formatting Data Labels in Visuals.
The settings available in the Properties panel depend on the line chart type and configuration.

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Using Line Charts