Combo chart

Last update: 2023-04-20
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The Combo chart visualization makes it easy to quickly build a comparison visualization without having to build a table first. You can easily view trends in your data in a line/bar combination.

Use a Combo chart to

  • Compare this week’s orders to orders at the same time last month (and last year) - all within a few clicks.

  • Quickly analyze and compare multiple metrics (like Unique Visitors and Revenue) against one another on the same chart.

  • Analyze a metric against a function (such as Cumulative Average) over a time horizon.

Keep this in mind:

  • You can add multiple comparisons in a single Combo chart.
  • If you add one or more comparisons, they have to be of the same type, such as Time comparison.
  • You can add up to 5 comparisons.
  • You can apply up to 3 filters (segments) to a metric.
  • Calculated metrics are not supported in Combo charts.

Build a Combo chart

  1. From the Visualizations drop-down list in the left rail, drag the Combo chart visualization into a blank panel.

  2. From the drop-down lists, select a dimension for the X-axis and a metric for the Y-axis.

  3. Select the type of Line comparison you want to use.

    Line comparison type Definition
    Time comparison The most common type of comparison - comparing this time period to 4 weeks ago, for example. If you selected Time comparison, make a secondary selection as to which time period you want to compare.
    Function You could introduce a function like Average into the comparison. See a list of supported functions below.
    Secondary metric You could, for example, compare Revenue to another metric.

  4. Click Build.

    The output will look similar to this:

    The current period is shown in the bar chart, and the comparison period is represented by the line chart. The dots on the line chart are known as “bar bells”.

Supported functions

If you choose Function as the Line comparison type, a function of the metric you have chosen will be returned.

Function Definition
Column Sum Adds all of the numeric values for a metric within a column (across the elements of a dimension)
Cumulative Average Returns the average of the last N rows.
Median Returns the median for a metric in a column. The median is the number in the middle of a set of numbers—that is, half the numbers have values that are greater than or equal to the median, and half are less than or equal to the median.
Cumulative The cumulative sum of N rows.
Column Maximum Returns the largest value in a set of dimension elements for a metric column.
Mean Returns the arithmetic mean, or average, for a metric.
Column Minimum Returns the smallest value in a set of dimension elements for a metric column.

Here is an example of the cumulative average of the Revenue metric:

Here is an example of a combo chart with both Cumulative average and Mean functions:

Combo chart settings

Click the gear icon on the top right of a combo chart to change its settings.

Setting Definition
Visualization type Lets you switch to another visualization type.
Granularity For trended visualizations, you can change the time granularity (day, week, month, etc.) from this drop-down list.
General
Percentages Displays values in percentages.
Legend visible Lets you hide the detailed legend text for the Combo charts visualization.
Limit max items Reduces the number of items on the X-axis. If you have a big data set, you may only show the first 10 items (or whatever value you pick).
Overlays Show or hide barbells on lines.
Axis
Display dual axis Only applies if you have two metrics - you can have a y-axis on the left (for one metric) and on the right (for the other metric). This is helpful when plotted metrics are of very different magnitudes. The dual axis color matches the color of the table, unless there are multiple comparisons. In that case, the color for all the comparisons is gray.
Normalization Forces metrics to equal proportions. This is helpful when plotted metrics are of very different magnitudes.
Show x-axis Display the x-axis or hide it.
Show y-axis Display the y-axis or hide it.
Anchor y-axis at zero If all the values plotted on the chart are considerably above zero, the chart default will make the bottom of the y-axis NON-ZERO. If you check this box, the y-axis will be forced to zero (and it will re-draw the chart).
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