Bar charts are the most common type of business chart and are especially useful for comparative analysis. You can use a bar chart to illustrate comparisons among individual items. Bar charts are also useful for comparing classes or groups of data. In bar charts, a class or group can have a single category (single series) of data, or they can be broken down further into multiple categories (multiple series) for greater depth of analysis.

Passing data to a bar chart is as simple as passing one or more data series and tags or labels accompanying each data series. These labels will be displayed in the categorical or time axis (X Axis).

When more than one series is passed to the chart, Chart FX will display, by default, the bars side by side in a 2D style. For example, if you want to represent projected vs. actual revenue for the different months of the year, the bar chart will be the best chart type to use. The following figure depicts several bar charts:

Bar and Column charts

Some charting vendors refer to column and bar terms in different ways. As a rule of thumb, a column chart is a chart displaying vertical bars while the bar chart term is commonly used for horizontal bars. However, to some people this is difference is not decipherable. For this reason, Chart FX utilizes the term Bar chart in the same way for both, vertical or horizontal, displays.

To make a bar chart horizontal, please use the Gantt chart type. For additional information please check the Chart FX API in your electronic documentation.

Controlling the bar width and space between points

The width of a bar is determined by the number of points in the X axis and the number of series. Chart FX distributes evenly the X axis space among all the points in the chart. Once that space has been determined, all the series in the point share such space, controlled by the Volume property. The default value of Volume is 75, which means that the bars will use 75% of the space allotted for each point, thus leaving a gap between one point and the other. A Volume of 100 will leave no space between one point and the next, as shown below:

All series must have the same volume. Chart FX allows setting different volume per series only when bars overlap. Overlapping is a feature found in the Bar and Gantt galleries. The following code shows how to set bars with different volumes:

Stacked Charts

Another way to represent bar charts is through stacking. In this way, a single bar on the chart can show data for more than one category of data. Stacked bar charts show the relationship of parts to the whole. Stacking techniques differ depending on whether you are representing divisions within data label categories or stacking two separate numeric categories.

Stacked bar charts offer similar complexity to clustered bar charts by adding together component value items within chart bars or areas. By stacking items and assigning a different color to each item, you can effectively display trends among comparable or related items, or visually emphasize a sum of several indicators.

To create a Stacked bar chart, you need more than one series. Each series contains the additive value rendered as an additional segment along the length of the bar. Additionally, Chart FX lets you stack the bar charts vertically or horizontally as well as in groups of stacked bars as depicted in the following figures:

In some cases, you may need to compare multiple series as a proportion in different scenarios or time instances. For that, you can use the Stacked 100% style:

Bar chart with initial values

Most Bar charts display bars commencing at the axis minimum point and extending across the chart area all the way to the value that has been given to the bar. In some cases, bars are required to have an initial value and an ending value, which forces the bar to draw differently.

For example, a Gantt chart which allows a graphical display of activities in a project, each activity (bar) has a commencing and an ending date; this forces the bar to be displayed with an initial value as depicted in the figure below.

To achieve these chart types simply pass an additional initial value to the chart using the YFrom property. You can also assign a particular field in your dataset to represent initial values for the chart you are creating.

Note: Initial values can be used on both horizontal and vertical bar charts.

3D Bar Charts

Chart FX allows you to set a 3D look to your bar charts. Sometimes these charts are harder to read and analyze but present a nicer look for presentation purposes. Chart FX supports two types of 3D effects: Oblique and Ortographic projections.

In Oblique 3D View, charts appear in the chart space as 3D objects with depth. In contrast, the Ortographic 3D view allows you to set rotation angles and a perspective value for your charts. The following two pictures depict an Oblique and Ortographic projections, respectively:

Note: That does not mean that you are plotting three dimensions of data or using three dimensions of space to represent data (XYZ Coordinates). In contrast, Chart FX will always use two dimensional data. In other words, 3D is simply a visual effect that can be turned off.

Clustered charts

Cluster normally applies to 3D bar charts and this effect allows you to change your chart perspective so that the Z-axis data extended in the third dimension is shown as clusters displayed in the foreground. This charting option is useful when Z-axis bars are hard to distinguish in standard bar formats. To create a clustered bar chart, you need more than one series. Each series occupies its own position along the Z-axis data. The following picture depicts a clustered bar chart:

Although Chart FX does not support real 3D data, the name of the series appears as Z-axis labels. Such labels appear automatically when the LegendBox is not visible, and are hidden when the LegendBox is shown, to avoid redundancy. 3D charts support custom rotation through the AngleX and AngleY properties. Z-axis rotation angle applies only to certain chart galleries such as pie. The following image shows a chart with custom rotation:

In 2D bar charts, you can use clustered bar charts to juxtapose categories in one label item. For example, use clustered bars to compare stores of different types. Alternatively, cluster bars can be used to compare two different value items, such as Amount of Sales and Units Sold.

Changing the bars appearance

Besides rectangular bars, Chart FX allows you to change the marker to cylinders, cones and floating cubes. These markers support both 2D and 3D effects.

The following figures display some of these special bar chart types:

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