Area Chart

In This Topic

Area charts display a sequence of filled areas between the axis (or an origin line) and the value line. Area charts are usually used for comparing two or more values or representing the contribution of each value to a total (stacks), usually over time or other X measurement. Following is a description of the area chart settings:

Settings

Sub Type - the following table summarizes the different subtypes of the area chart type:

Subtype	X Dimension Type	Z Dimension Type	Data Requirements		Description
Subtype	X Dimension Type	Z Dimension Type	First in Chart	Next in Chart	Description
Classical - Displayed in both 2D and 3D. The X dimension type is always Categorical.
Series	Categorical	Categorical	Value	Value	Shows series behind each other (best viewed in 3D).
Stacked	Categorical	One	Value	Value	Piles series on top of each other. Supports negative values.
Stacked Percent	Categorical	One	Value	Value	Piles series on top of each other and scales each pile to 100%.
XY Scatters - Displayed in both 2D and 3D. The X dimension type is always Numeric.
XY Scatter	Numeric	Categorical	Value X	Value X	Besides the value, each data point has a X coordinate at which it is positioned.
XY Scatter Stacked	Numeric	One	Value X	Value	The first in chart defines the stack X position. Next in chart piled on top. Supports negative values.
XY Scatter Stacked Percent	Numeric	One	Value X	Value	The first in chart defines the stack X position. Next in chart are piled on top. Each pile is scaled to 100%.

All subtypes support a Label value for each data point. The Y dimension is always Numeric.

Depth Percent - defines the depth of the area in the series in percents of the series size along the depth axis.

Drop Lines - when checked, displays vertical lines at each data point, which connect the data point value with the area base line.

Sampling Mode - controls whether the area uses sampling. When using sampling the area will detect very close individual area segments and display a single area segment that has the minimum and maximum values of the area segments that comprise it. This reduces the number of visual area segments and therefore leads to improved performance. When using sampling the area series will not regard settings for markers and data labels, individual appearance styles and shadow. Possible value are:

Auto - The area series uses sampling only when the number of data points is large.
Enabled - The area series always uses sampling.
Disabled - The area series does not use sampling. This is the default.

Sample Distance - controls the precision of the area series when it aggregates adjacent area segments. The precision is specified in points.

The settings in the Palette tab are described in the Value Palette Settings topic.

Automatic Data Labels Positioning

The automatic positioning of data labels in the case of all types of stacks is the data point center. In all other cases data labels are displayed on top of the data point.

Automatic Legend Mode

The automatic legend mode in all subtypes evaluates to series (e.g. the series is displayed in the legend).