Suppose your data looks like this (ignore the “height” column for now):

Make a column chart with all of the data:

Right click the Actual series, choose Chart Type from the pop up menu, and select a Line Chart subtype:

That was pretty easy.

What if you want to use horizontal bars? Perhaps the attribute labels are too long to make good category labels along the horizontal axis. Long ago I wrote a tutorial on Bar-Line Combination Charts on my web site, but that’s a complicated example. Here’s a new, simpler version of that tutorial.

Let’s try the same approach as above. Here’s a chart with both series as bars:

Right click on the Actual series, choose Chart Type, select the line with markers subtype. That’s no good. The bars increase in value from left to right, while the line values increase bottom to top.

So we need a new approach. Make a bar chart with the Target data.

We want the attributes listed in the opposite order, so format the vertical axis, check Categories in Reverse Order and Value Axis Crosses at Maximum.

Copy the Actual and Height columns of data, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series, series in columns, series names in first row, and categories in first column.

Right click on the Actual series, choose Chart Type, then select the Lines with Markers version of the XY chart type. Since Actual is used for the X values of the XY series, both series show Target and Actual increasing from left to right.

Here is how to compute the values in the Height column. There are five categories (attributes) along the left hand axis, and the XY series markers fall in the middle of each category.Y values for the XY series range from zero at the bottom to 5 at the top of the axis. The first point is for Attribute 1, and is plotted at a height of 4.5. The next one, for Attribute 2, is at 3.5, an so forth, as shown in this chart.

You have to keep both horizontal axes in the chart, and you have to make sure they stay synchronized when the data changes. But you can hide the top horizontal axis: format it so it uses no line and shows no tick labels.

Well, that wasn’t so hard, either.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2010.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

David attacked the problem in his blog post Two Color XY -Area Combo Chart, and he has graciously accepted my offer to repost his article below.

Two Color XY-Area Combo Chart

Last Wednesday, Jon explained the technique for creating an XY-area combo chart. The original article shows how to color the area between two lines in a chart where the lines never cross. I’m going to assume you read the article and that we’re all starting at this point:

But what if you want to cross the lines? The good news is that this isn’t Ghostbusters and crossing the lines doesn’t break anything, the area between the lines is still filled in perfectly. If we flip the values in B5:C5, B7:C7, and B9:C9, we get the following:

The bad news is that the fill series is only one color and as soon as you show it to your boss she’ll ask why the positive and negative areas aren’t green and red, respectively (which you shouldn’t do anyway because a lot of people are red/green colorblind). Before today, you would have said that it would take too long to add a second color, that it was impossible, or you would have just drawn auto shapes on top of the chart. Today though there is a much easier solution:

1. Download the workbook at the end of this post.
2. Plug in your data values.
3. Profit.

But if you’re like me, and I know I am, chances are you’re reading this blog because you want to learn how to do it yourself. At this time I should note that Excel 2003 and I have a monogamous relationship and that some of these steps may be different for other versions of Excel.

Okay, so the first thing that is obvious is that you’ll need to add another data series if you want an additional color. Creating separate positive and negative data series doesn’t work by itself though; you need your positive and negative shading to end where the lines intersect, but the shading will continue on to the next point on the x-axis with the current configuration.

What we need to do is find the x values at the points where the lines intersect and add them to our secondary x-axis (just a recap, the lines are on the primary x-axis, the shading on the secondary x-axis).

This isn’t as hard as it sounds, but when searching for a way to find the point where lines intersect in Excel I found a lot of people suggesting Goalseek. This deeply offends the math geek in me. Letting machines do math for you is only okay if you told it exactly what to do. If you didn’t tell it what to do, the computer is thinking for you, and that is a slippery slope to Skynet. But I digress…

The common formula for a straight line is y = mx + b, where m is the slope and b is the y-axis intercept. At each point of intersection in our chart, we have two lines:

y₁ = m₁x₁ + b₁
y₂ = m₂x₂ + b₂

Because we want the point where the lines intersect, y₁ = y₂ and x₁ = x₂. Also, because both of the formulas equal y, they are also equal to each other and we can simplify to:

m₁x + b₁ = m₂x + b₂

Solving for x gives us:

x = (b₂-b₁)/(m₁-m₂)

Slope m₁ and intercept b₁ correspond with the top line, the red one in the example, and m₂ and b₂ refer to the bottom/blue line. For now, let’s focus on the first point of intersection where the two bolded line segments cross:

Excel has built in functions for calculating the slope and the intercept for a range of x and y values which they’ve cleverly named SLOPE() and INTERCEPT(). We’ll only need two points to calculate each of our line segments, so our formulas to calculate the two slopes (m₁ & m₂) between the first and second points will look like this:

Our two y-axis intercepts are calculated in the exact same way, just replace SLOPE with INTERCEPT. We’ll need to calculate the slope and intercept for both line segments at every point where the lines cross. If the lines don’t cross, we can skip the calculation.

Because the lines can potentially cross between any two data points, we’re doubling the size of the original secondary x-axis. Every other point will be one of the original data points, and the in-between points, which are the potential points of intersection, will either be NA() if the lines don’t cross (Excel will skip over #N/A errors when plotting most types of charts) or something like this formula (for cell G5) if they do cross:

=(INTERCEPT(C4:C5,D4:D5)-INTERCEPT(B4:B5,D4:D5)) /
(SLOPE(B4:B5,D4:D5)-SLOPE(C4:C5,D4:D5))

Remember that we’re just replacing the m and b values in x = (b₂-b₁)/(m₁-m₂) with the SLOPE() and INTERCEPT() functions. It isn’t as bad as it looks. In this image I’ve added the new secondary x-axis points in column G; the red shaded cells are the original points, and the blue points are the potential points of intersection that we’ve calculated:

Of course the formulas in the workbook are much uglier because I’m counting ROWS() and using the OFFSET() formula so I don’t have to manually add each line segment from the original data set, but it’s a little hard(er) to follow. Another trick to avoid manually entering each formula would be to insert blank cells between your original points in D4:F11. That way the original secondary x-axis and the new one in column G will be the same size and your formulas should copy down correctly.

So to recap, our new secondary x-axis should look something like column G. You still run from 0 to 1000, you still repeat the first and last value, and every other point is one of the original points as calculated in Jon’s original post. The points in between are #N/A errors if the lines don’t cross and the x values we just calculated for the points of intersection if the lines do cross. An easy way to tell if the lines cross?  In column F we had previously calculated the difference between the two original data series. If the product of any two adjacent points in column F is negative, the lines intersect between those two points. You should be able to add an IF() checking this at each potential point of intersection without too much trouble.

The next step is to rebuild the three Area data series. Area1 is the transparent base series, Area2 is the positive series, and Area3 is the new negative series.

To create Area1, every other row should point to an entry in the original series in column E. The in-between points should once again be NA() errors if the lines don’t intersect (same for Area2 and Area3 as well), and when they do intersect we just need to calculate the y value at that point. We already have the x value, so we can plug that into our y = mx + b equation. The formula for H5 would be:

=SLOPE(B4:B5,D4:D5)*G5+INTERCEPT(B4:B5,D4:D5)

You could also use the points C4:C5 for your y values as both line formulas will give the same result with that x value (G5).

Area2 and Area3 are incredibly straight forward. We still use the values in column F for every other cell, but the trick is that we only use the positive points in Area2 and only negative points in Area3, with the rest of the points being zero. This is easy to do with something like MAX(F4,0) for Area1 and MIN(F4,0) for Area3. All of the in-between points are either NA() errors (if there is no point of intersection) or zero. If everything worked correctly, your workbook should look like this:

Now you just need to add these new data series to the chart. Series 1 and 2 are the lines which should already be done, Series 3 (the transparent series) should now point to h2:h20, Series 4 (the positive series) should point to the values in column I, and you’ll have to add a Series 5 (negative) to point to the values in column J. The secondary x-axis values also need to be changed to the values in column G.

If your Series 5 didn’t default over to the secondary axes, you’ll have to switch it. Double click on Series 5, click on the “Axis” tab, and select the “Secondary axis” option.

Finally, double click on each area series, go to the “Patterns” tab, choose the two colors you think are the prettiest, and you’re all set.

If everything went correctly, you should have something like this:

If not, the workbook will make more sense than I ever could:

TwoColorXYAreaChart.xls

And that’s all there is to it. Let me know what you think in the comments.

- David

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2010.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

The trick is to use a chart that combines XY and Area type series. I described this technique in XY Area Chart: Fill Between XY Series, but that protocol doesn’t work the same in Excel 2007 as in earlier versions. Fortunately by rearranging some of the steps, a process can be designed that works for all versions of Excel, from 97 (maybe earlier) through 2007. This tutorial explains the redesigned protocol.

Here is the data for this example. The XY data is in columns A through C, and the area chart data in D through F. The X values of the area chart series will be plotted on a date scale which ranges from 0 to 1000 (1000 should provide plenty of resolution for a small chart). The minimum and maximum in column D are thus 0 and 1000. The other X values are scaled to the X values of the XY series, which will be scaled between 0 and 15.

The scaling formula in D4 is

=INT(1000*A4/15+0.5)

or in the general case

=INT(1000*(A4-Xmin)/(Xmax-Xmin)+0.5)

This formula is filled down to cell D11.

Cell D3 contains the formula =D4, and cell D12 contains the formula =D11.

The values in column E are linked to the corresponding values in column B, and the values in column F are the differences between the values in columns C and B, except for the zeros at the ends of the range. The duplicate X values produce a vertical edge in the area chart, when plotted on a date scale axis. The zeros at X=0 and X=1000 automatically scale the area chart axis, which is an improvement on the older technique.

The protocol starts by selecting the XY data range A3:C11 and creating an area chart (not an XY chart as in the old protocol, since that gets messed up in Excel 2007). The Excel 2003 chart is shown at the left, the Excel 2007 chart at the right.

Continue by copying the area data in D1:F13, selecting the chart, and using Paste Special to add the copied data as a new series with categories in the first column and series names in the first row.

The second two series are moved to the secondary axis. In 2003 (left), double click on the series, and on the Axis tab, choose Secondary. In 2007 (right), right click on the series, choose Format Data Series, and on the Series Options tab, choose Secondary.

The first two series are then converted to an XY type. Right click on each series, choose Chart Type, and select the XY type and subtype you want.

Excel only adds a secondary Y axis, and we need a secondary X axis, with a date scale. In Excel 2003 (left), go to Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab, check the box in front of Secondary Category (X) Axis, and select the Time Scale option. Excel 2007 (right) requires two steps. First, on the Chart Tools > Layout tab, click the Axes dropdown arrow, then Secondary Horizontal Axis, and select Show Left to Right Axis. Then right click the new axis, choose Format Axis, and under Axis Type on the Axis Options tab, select Date Axis

Now hide the secondary X axis and make sure the highlighting in under (not over) the XY series. In Excel 2003 (left), step 1 is to double click on the axis, and on the Patterns tab, choose none for major and minor tick marks, tick labels, and axis lines. Excel 2003 Step 2 is to double click on the secondary Y axis, and on the Scale tab, uncheck Category (X) Axis Crosses At Maximum. In Excel 2007 (right), right click the axis, choose Format Axis, and on the Axis Options tab, choose None for major and minor tick mark types and tick labels, and on the Line Color tab, choose No Line. In 2007, the fill is already under the XY series despite the position of the X axis.

Finally, in either version of Excel, select the secondary Y axis (right edge of the chart), and press Delete.

Finally, remove the fill below the lower XY series (unless you want to fill multiple areas).

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2010.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

The trick is to use a chart that combines XY and Area type series. I described this technique in XY Area Chart: Fill Below an XY Series, but that protocol doesn’t work the same in Excel 2007 as in earlier versions. Fortunately by rearranging some of the steps, a process can be designed that works for all versions of Excel, from 97 (maybe earlier) through 2007. This tutorial explains the redesigned protocol.

Here is the data for this example. The XY data is in columns A and B, and the area chart data in C and D. The X values of the area chart series will be plotted on a date scale which ranges from 0 to 1000 (1000 should provide plenty of resolution for a small chart). The minimum and maximum in column C are thus 0 and 1000. The other X values are scaled to the X values of the XY series, which will be scaled between 0 and 15.

The scaling formula in C4 is

=INT(1000*A4/15+0.5)

or in the general case

=INT(1000*(A4-Xmin)/(Xmax-Xmin)+0.5)

This formula is filled down to cell C11.

Cell C3 contains the formula =C4, and cell C12 contains the formula =C11.

The values in column D are linked to the corresponding values in column B, except for the zeros at the ends of the range. The duplicate X values produce a vertical edge in the area chart, when plotted on a date scale axis. The zeros at X=0 and X=1000 automatically scale the area chart axis, which is an improvement on the older technique.

The protocol starts by selecting the XY data range A3:B11 and creating an area chart (not an XY chart as in the old protocol, since that gets messed up in Excel 2007). The Excel 2003 chart is shown at the left, the Excel 2007 chart at the right.

Continue by copying the area data in C1:D13, selecting the chart, and using Paste Special to add the copied data as a new series with categories in the first column and series names in the first row.

The area series is moved to the secondary axis. In 2003 (left), double click on the series, and on the Axis tab, choose Secondary. In 2007 (right), right click on the series, choose Format Data Series, and on the Series Options tab, choose Secondary.

The first series is then converted to an XY type. Right click on the series, choose Chart Type, and select the XY type and subtype you want.

Excel only adds a secondary Y axis, and we need a secondary X axis, with a date scale. In Excel 2003 (left), go to Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab, check the box in front of Secondary Category (X) Axis, and select the Time Scale option. Excel 2007 (right) requires two steps. First, on the Chart Tools > Layout tab, click the Axes dropdown arrow, then Secondary Horizontal Axis, and select Show Left to Right Axis. Then right click the new axis, choose Format Axis, and under Axis Type on the Axis Options tab, select Date Axis.

Now hide the secondary X axis and make sure the highlighting in under (not over) the XY series. In Excel 2003 (left), step 1 is to double click on the axis, and on the Patterns tab, choose none for major and minor tick marks, tick labels, and axis lines. Excel 2003 Step 2 is to double click on the secondary Y axis, and on the Scale tab, uncheck Category (X) Axis Crosses At Maximum. In Excel 2007 (right), right click the axis, choose Format Axis, and on the Axis Options tab, choose None for major and minor tick mark types and tick labels, and on the Line Color tab, choose No Line. In 2007, the fill is already under the XY series despite the position of the X axis.

Finally, in either version of Excel, select the secondary Y axis (right edge of the chart), and press Delete.

My next post will show how to use a variation on this technique to fill between two XY series.

Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2010.
 
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 

Panel Chart Data

The data used for the chart is shown below. This first table contains data to be plotted in two XY chart series. The lines stretch across category labels at X values 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I arbitrarily selected ±0.33, which produces the pairs {0.67, 1.33}, {1.67, 2.33}, etc. In fact, these values are not hard coded. Outside of the range shown here I have the X values for the category labels {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and the value 0.33. Formulas produce the X values; if I want a change, I can merely change the vaue from 0.33 to something different, and all of the X values update. Blank rows in the data will produce gaps in the otherwise continuous series. For example, a line is plotted between 0.67 and 1.33, a gap is present between 1.33 and 1.67, a line is drawn between 1.67 and 2.33, and so forth.

The data for my dummy category axis labels is shown below. I will make a simple column chart with this series. Excel will place the C1 to C5 labels at X=1 to 5. The Y axis range is blank, so the column chart will have bars with zero height. (I could have used zero values as well.)

Building the Panel Chart

Start by selecting the axis data and creating a column chart. I temporarily inserted values of 1 so it’s obvious what is going on. I’ve also already changed the axis and plot area lines to gray.

Clean up the chart. Since we’re concerned with relative trends, and because these are tiny little charts, I have removed the Y axis labels. I also removed the title and the X axis tick marks, and moved the legend to the top of the chart.

Now I’ve removed the “1″ values in the axis data range.

Add the brand 1 and brand 2 data. Copy the range, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as new series, with categories in the first column (but not replacing the existing categories) and series names in the first row. These series are added as more column series.

Select one of the added series, and change it to an XY type (right click on it, choose Chart Type or Change Chart Type, and select the type from the dialog). Excel helpfully (NOT!) adds secondary axes, because nobody could possibly want XY and column series on the same axis. Except us.

In Excel 2003 or earlier, immediately select the other added series, and press the F4 function key to repeat the previous action. In Excel 2007, the F4 key has lost most of its former glory, so you’ll have to use the right-click approach to change it to an XY type.

Select one of the XY series (‘brand1′ below) and format it so it is on the primary axis.

Select the other XY series, and in Excel 2003 or prior, click F4 again. Excel 2007 users, you know the drill.

Well, that’s lines up the way we want. Let’s tidy up, shall we? First, select the legend entry for the ‘axis’ series (the text label, not the colored rectangle), and press delete.

Add vertical (X-axis) major gridlines (Chart menu > Chart Options > Gridlines tab in Excel 2003, one of the contextual Chart Tools tabs in 2007). Format them the same gray as the border.

Finally, use formatting to make the brand data stick out a bit. I used brighter colors and a thicker line.

Not too tricky. We needed a little hint about data arrangement, and one dummy series to handle the X axis labels.

This tutorial shows how to create Clustered-Stacked Charts, including the specialized data layout needed, and the detailed combination of chart series and chart types required. This manual process takes time, can be prone to error, and becomes tedious.

I have created the Peltier Tech Cluster Stack Chart Utility to create such charts automatically from raw data. This utility, a standard Excel add-in, lays out data in the required layout, then constructs a chart with the right combination of chart types. This is a commercial product, tested on hundreds of machines in a wide variety of configurations, which saves time and aggravation.

The Peltier Tech Cluster Stack Utility creates charts in either horizontal or vertical orientation.

Please visit the Peltier Tech Cluster Stack Chart Utility page or the Peltier Tech Cluster Stack Chart Utility Documentation page for more information.

This is a companion article to Clustered-Stacked Column Charts.

Excel offers clustered bar charts and stacked bar charts among its standard options.

A common request is to make a bar chart where the bars are clustered together, while one or more of the clustered bars are divided into sections stacked on top of each other. This isn’t built into Excel, but by rearranging the worksheet data, it can be constructed readily.

Suppose we have the simple data below, with four series of data over three months. One series is to be by itself in the top bar of the cluster, and three series stacked on the bottom.

We can select this data and create a clustered bar chart

or a stacked bar chart

But however we try to arrange series, we cannot achieve a clustered-stacked bar chart.

If we keep our wits about us, we can envision a worksheet arrangement that will give us what we want. We need a gap, one series stacked in the first filled slot, three series stacked in the second slot, then another gap, and the pattern repeats. So this is really a stacked chart. Where we have gaps, the series have zero values; where one series is alone, the others have zero values; where the three series are stacked, the other has a zero. This new arrangement is shown below. Gaps in the data occur at columns B, E, H, and K. The left column of each cluster has data in columns C, F, and I; the right column in D, G, and J. For clarity in this exercise, I’ve duplicated the column letters in the category labels range (B7:K7, tan). The top left cell (A7) is blank.

Select this range and create a stacked bar chart. It’s halfway done, we just need some formatting. To get the categories in top-down order, format the category (X) axis scale so that the categories are in reverse order and the value (Y) axis crosses at the maximum category.

Change the gap width of any series to zero, and it looks almost done.

The axis labels aren’t right, though. We need the months centered between existing labels, for example, “Alpha” between the current positions of “C” and “D”. This simple data works; note its arrangement parallels the original data. I’ve used 10 for the values so the bars show up in the charts. When I finish I’ll change the values to zero.

Here is what the chart’s axis should look like when we’re done:

Copy the data in F1:I2, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series, with data in rows, category labels in the first row (we’ll have to reapply this later), and series names in the first column. The data is stacked on top of the first three categories.

What we need to do is put the axis series on the primary axis and the stacked data series onto the secondary axis (if we reverse this, we will have problems displaying the Alpha-Beta-Gamma axis labels). Select one of the series, and move it to the secondary axis. I usually move the lowest valued series first (Right 3 in this example) so that the secondary axis series don’t obscure the primary series I need to select and move next.

In turn, select and move all of the Left and Right series to the secondary axis. I’ve changed the gap width of the Axis series to 50% (from zero) to make it easier to follow. The Left and Right series are clustered, not stacked, because that’s Excel’s default bar chart variation.

Select one of the secondary axis series, and change its chart type to stacked. All bar series on that axis will follow suit. Also, change the gap width of a secondary axis series to zero.

Excel has given us a secondary value (Y) axis, but we only have the primary category (X) axis. Using Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab, or in Excel 2007, the Chart Tools > Layout tab, to add the secondary axis to the chart. At first, we don’t have the appropriate names as our labels, because Excel applied the existing labels (B through K) to all series.

Edit the series source data or the series formula for the Axis series, so that the months in G1:I1 are used for category labels.

Almost done. The month names are not centered correctly next to the clustered bars. Format the scale of the secondary category axis (B through K at the right of the chart) so that the value axis does not cross between categories.

Perfectly aligned. Now format the secondary category axis to display no tick labels and no tick marks.

Use Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab or Ribbon > Chart Tools > Layout tab to remove the secondary value (Y) axis (or select it and press Delete). Format the Axis series on the secondary axis so that it has no fill. Change the Axis series values in G2:I2 from 10 to zero. Select the legend, then select the Axis legend entry, and hide it by pressing Delete.

Not too complicated, and it shows exactly what we want.

Suppose we have the simple data below, with four series of data over three months. One series is to be by itself in the left column of the cluster, and three series stacked on the right.

We can select this data and create a clustered column chart

or a stacked column chart

But however we try to arrange series, we cannot achieve a clustered-stacked chart.

If we keep our wits about us, we can envision a worksheet arrangement that will give us what we want. We need a gap, one series stacked in the first filled slot, three series stacked in th second slot, then another gap, and the pattern repeats. So this is really a stacked chart. Where we have gaps, the series have zero values; where one series is alone, the others have zero values; where the three series are stacked, the other has a zero. This new arrangement is shown below. Gaps in the data occur at columns B, E, H, and K. The left column of each cluster has data in columns C, F, and I; the right column in D, G, and J. For clarity in this exercise, I’ve duplicated the column letters in the category labels range (B7:K7, tan). The top left cell (A7) is blank.

Select this range and create a stacked column chart. It’s halfway done, we just need some formatting.

Change the gap width of any series to zero, and it looks almost done.

The axis labels aren’t right, though. We need the months centered between existing labels, for example, “Jan” between the current positions of “C” and “D”. This simple data works; note its arrangement parallels the original data. I’ve used 10 for the values so the bars show up in the charts. When I finish I’ll change the values to zero.

Here is what the chart’s axis should look like when we’re done:

Copy the data in F1:I2, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series, with data in rows, category labels in the first row (we’ll have to reapply this later), and series names in the first column. The data is stacked on top of the first three categories.

What we need to do is put the axis series on the primary axis and the stacked data series onto the secondary axis (if we reverse this, we will have problems displaying the Jan-Feb-Mar axis labels). Select one of the series, and move it to the secondary axis. I usually move the lowest valued series first (Right 3 in this example) so that the secondary axis series don’t obscure the primary series I need to select and move next.

In turn, select and move all of the Left and Right series to the secondary axis. I’ve changed the gap width of the Axis series to 100% (from zero) to make it easier to follow. The Left and Right series are clustered, not stacked, because that’s Excel’s default column chart variation.

Select one of the secondary axis series, and change its chart type to stacked. All column series on that axiss will follow suit. Also, change the gap width of a secondary axis column to zero.

Excel has given us a secondary value (Y) axis, but we only have the primary category (X) axis. Using Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab, or in Excel 2007, the Chart Tools > Layout tab, to add the secondary axis to the chart. At first, we don’t have the month names as our labels, because Excel applied the existing labels (B through K) to all series.

Edit the series source data or the series formula for the Axis series, so that the months in G1:I1 are used for category labels.

Almost done. The month names are not centered correctly under the clustered columns. Format the scale of the secondary category axis (B through K at the top of the chart) so that the value axis does not cross between categories.

Perfectly aligned. Now format the secondary category axis to display no tick labels and no tick marks.

Use Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab or Ribbon > Chart Tools > Layout tab to remove the secondary value (Y) axis (or select it and press Delete). Format the Axis series on the secondary axis so that it has no fill. Change the Axis series values in G2:I2 from 10 to zero. Select the legend, then select the Axis legend entry, and hide it by pressing Delete.

Adding Vertical Lines – The Easy Way

As Andy Pope pointed out in his comment, there’s a very easy way to add vertical lines between the main categories. Since the categories are on the primary X axis, we can add major gridlines to this axis. Right click on the chart, choose Chart Options, click on Gridlines, and check Major Gridlines under Category (X) Axis.

Adding Vertical Lines – The Hard Way

To add the vertical lines the hard way (as I originally posted), we first will add a series of points along the lower edge of the chart. This will be an XY type series, and we will apply vertical error bars. The data for this series is as follows. Jan is at 1, Feb is at 2, and Mar is at 3; we want points between these positions, so we need X values of 1.5 and 2.5. The Y values are zero so the points lie along the horizontal axis.

Copy the range K1:M2, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series, with data in rows, categories in the first row, and series names in the first column. The data is first added as another stacked column series, with zero height, so it’s not visible.

Select the Verticals series (perhaps by selecting a visible series and using the arrow keys to cycle among the series in the chart), and from the Chart menu, click on Chart Type, then select an XY type. I chose the type  with markers and lines just to be visible in this example.

If you look closely, you can see that the secondary category axis has changed, moving the outer clusters closer to the center. Select the secondary category axis (I used the Chart Element dropdown on the Chart toolbar), on the Format menu, choose Selected Axis, and on the Scale tab, uncheck the box for Value (Y) Axis Crosses Between Categories.

That’s better. Now double click the Verticals series, click on the Y Error Bars tab, click on the positive error bar icon, and enter a value of 70. If the Y axis has an automatic scale, it will change to 80, so it reaches higher than the error bars, so you will have to enter 70 as the axis maximum for the Y axis.

Now hide the Verticals series by formatting it with no markers and no lines. Select the legend, then select the Verticals legend entry, and press Delete.

Now you have the vertical separation between months of data. In fact, this is a panel chart.

I thought it was daring of Chandoo to try such a unique treatment of the data, but I found the bubbles difficult to interpret, and it was distracting that I had to look from chart to chart to try to see the whole picture. My complete review of Chandoo’s chart is in Rock Around The Clock.

Jorge Camoes has chimed in with a radar chart solution in Charting around the clock.

Jorge’s chart prevented the side to side motion needed to see the entire picture, but it does not show where the lines join to make a 24-hour record of the data.

Note: This chart is a novelty, and is not as good at representing the data clearly as a line chart would be. It’s really only effective at showing the difference between pairs of points 12 hours apart, the AM and PM values. This chart type cannot effectively show trends or compare values an hour or more apart. For effective data presentation, stick to line charts.

I created my own 12-hour circular graphic, which addresses my conceptual problems with the charts shown thus far. It’s actually a combination radar-XY chart, using the radar to reproduce Jorge’s nice Roman-numeral clock face, and the XY series uses Chandoo’s trig algorithms to locate the actual data.

I presented this chart in Rock Around The Clock, but I did not show how I made it. This post has instructions.

Radar-XY Combination Chart Data

The chart has two blocks of data. The first block in columns A and B consists of data that drives the labeling of the chart numbers. I’ve used Jorge’s Roman numerals for the time labels in column A (the category labels of the radar chart), and the values of 160 in column B correspond to the maximum value in the chart.

The data in Columns D through H are used in the XY series. The time in column D is the time in hours, with 0-11 AM followed by 0-11 PM. The radius (column E) is the set of values to be plotted radially from the center of the chart. We accomplish this in an XY chart by converting the angle and radius to X-Y coordinates. The angle goes from 0 to 360 degrees (0 to 2 PI) from 0 to 12 hours. Columns F and G contain trig functions to handle this conversion. Cell F2 has this formula:

=E2*SIN(D2/6*PI())
 

Cell G2 has this formula:

=E2*COS(D2/6*PI())
 

These formuas are filled down to row 26. Note that the first point is repeated at the end of the table: while the radar chart automatically connects the first and last points, an XY chart does not assume that the points trace a circuit.

Column H contains labels which will be applied to selected points.

Creating the Radar-XY Combination Chart

Start by selecting A1:B13, and create a radar chart. The data traces the circumference of the chart. I’ve changed the axis spacing from 20 to 40, because there were too many gridlines.

This appearance of the radial spokes and circumferential is reminiscent of a spider’s web, so radar charts are also known as spider charts.

Change the gridline and axis (spoke) line color to very light gray. Change the data series and the axis labels to a medium gray, so these features will not overwhelm your plotted data.

Select and copy F1:G26, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series. Excel adds it as another radar series. Since it has 24 points, the series changes the chart so that it has 24 spokes, and the first series covers only half of the chart.

Right click the new series, choose Chart Type, and select an XY chart type. Excel plots the XY series on the secondary axes, and adds secondary X and Y axes to the chart.

Change the secondary X and Y axes so that both have a minimum of -160, a maximum of 160, a major unit of 40, and the matching axis crosses at zero. The axes are coincident with the axis of the radar chart.

Finally, format the secondary X and Y axis to be invisible: no line, no ticks, and no tick labels.

If you just want to show the 24 hour cycle, you can stop here. To help clarify the chart, I added some labels to selected points, showing the corresponding time, using Rob Bovey’s Chart Labeler.

You may want to show the daytime data points with different formatting. You can individually format the particular points, but I prefer to add a new series, so I can edit formatting in one step instead of one step per point. Copy F10:G21, select the chart, and use Paste Special as before to add the data as a new series.

Apply the desired formatting to the daytime series

Download RadarXYAroundTheClock.zip to see a workbook that shows these steps.

A common request is for a clustered-stacked column chart where the columns are clustered together, while one or more of the clustered columns are divided into sections stacked on top of each other. This isn’t built into Excel, but by rearranging the worksheet data, it can be constructed readily.

In Clustered-Stacked Column Charts I showed how to construct such a chart.

But now I’ve been asked to extend the combination to include a set of lines on the secondary vertical axis.

Suppose we have the simple data below, with four series of data over three months. One series is to be by itself in the left column of the cluster, and three series stacked on the right.

Following the rationale in Clustered-Stacked Column Charts, the data must be rearranged to the following format, so all of the columns will be positioned as desired.

Select this range and create a stacked column chart. It’s halfway done, we just need some formatting.

Change the gap width of any series to zero, and it looks almost done.

In Clustered-Stacked Column Charts, we used a dummy series to make the category axis labels look right. To add a set of lines which are cenetered on each cluster of columns, we will use the same approach. Here is the data for the line series. This simple data works; note its arrangement parallels the original data.

Here is what the chart’s axis should look like when we’re done:

Copy the data in F1:I3, select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series, with data in rows, category labels in the first row (we’ll have to reapply this later), and series names in the first column. The data is stacked on top of the first three categories.

What we need to do is put the line series on the primary axis and the stacked column series onto the secondary axis (if we reverse this, we will have problems displaying the Jan-Feb-Mar axis labels). Select one of the series, and move it to the secondary axis. I usually move the lowest valued series first (B3 in this example) so that the secondary axis series don’t obscure the primary series I need to select and move next.

In turn, select and move all of the A and B column series to the secondary axis. The A and B series are clustered, not stacked, because that’s Excel’s default column chart variation.

Select one of the secondary axis series, and change its chart type to stacked. All column series on that axiss will follow suit. Also, change the gap width of a secondary axis column to zero.

Excel has given us a secondary value (Y) axis, but we only have the primary category (X) axis. Using Chart menu > Chart Options > Axes tab, or in Excel 2007, the Chart Tools > Layout tab, to add the secondary axis to the chart. At first, we don’t have the month names as our labels, because Excel applied the existing labels (B through K) to all series.

Edit the series source data or the series formula for the Axis series, so that the months in G1:I1 are used for category labels.

The stacked column Y axis (secondary) is along the right edge of the chart, and the line Y axis (primary) is along the left. We want to switch these axes. Format the secondary X axis (top) so that the Value Y Axis does not cross at the maximum category (uncheck the box). Then format the primary X axis (bottom) so that the Value Y Axis does cross at the maximum category (check the box).

Almost done. The month names are not centered correctly under the clustered columns. Format the scale of the secondary category axis (B through K at the top of the chart) so that the value axis does not cross between categories.

Perfectly aligned. Now convert one of the line series from a column to to a line style.

Repeat for the other line series.

Now format the secondary category axis (B to K along the top of the chart) to display no tick labels and no tick marks. Adjust the plot area width so the legend does not obscure the Y axis labels.

You may want to reposition the legend.

This chart illustrates a problem with secondary axes, which Stephen Few wrote about in Dual-Scaled Axes in Graphs-Are They Ever the Best Solution?, and which I followed up in Secondary Axes in Charts. The problem is twofold. First, having the primary and secondary series overlapping in the same chart space makes it unclear which series corresponds to which axes. Second, it is impossible to separate the primary and secondary series visually. For example, although the lines and columns are independent, the red line seems to match with the green column at the endpoints but with the blue column in the middle.

These problems can be avoided by using two separate charts, or if you’re a bit more adventurous, by creating a panel chart.

Arranging the chart that way without changing its height shortens the vertical scales, reducing resolution of the axes. The legend can be moved and the chart made taller and narrower.

This illustrates a problem with chart legends. First, they force the reader to move his eyes between the charted data and the legend. Second, in this case, the legend is completely out of order compared to the plotted points. It is usually better to use data labels right in the chart.

We could simply create a line chart to show both the target and actual values. However, the target looks too much like the actuals, and we’d like them to look more different, so they can be distinguished at a glance.

The two lines are even more difficult to distinguish when the chart is shrunk to typical dashboard chart dimensions.

One way to distinguish the two series is to right click on the target series, choose Chart Type, and select an area type. Note that this moves the January and December data points to the edges of the chart.

A lighter target series fill color helps emphasize the actual values.

We can even dispense with the colors and switch to grays for improved photocopying results, or actually choose any color scheme that isn’t overpowering. 

Another approach is to convert the target series to a column chart.

We can reduce the gap width to zero, and choose a lighter color, to de-emphasize the target.

The gray scheme from above works well for the column chart variant too.

The chart can be improved further by removing axis lines, applying a gap width of 5 to the columns, and pulling the month labels inside the bottoms of the bars to expand the vertical scale. (Excel doesn’t allow axis tick marks without the axis line, so I added an XY series with no line or markers but with short error bars.)

We can shrink the charts even further (the following are narrower but slightly taller). The dual line chart is no better than in the larger sizes.

The area and both column versions of the target series work well.

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