Butterfly chart

Butterfly bar chart

Butterfly column chart

A butterfly bar (column) chart represents two data series side by side with the scales meeting at the center. In other words, the chart is comprised of two bar or column charts on either side of the same value axis. With this chart, you can see how one series compares to the other series for a given data point. The measures should be comparable and share the same scale and units of measurement.

When to use

Use the butterfly bar (column) chart to compare two opposing measures, such as male and female, positive and negative opinions, and similar data series. Both data series are plotted as positive values. In general, you may use it as an alternative to a regular bar chart or a stacked bar chart whenever you present two data sets.

A bar chart displays data as horizontal bars, while a column chart displays data as vertical bars. However, the data is processed the same way.

The following table shows the main differences between the two chart types.

Use column charts to Use bar charts to
  • Display dimensions related to time (months, quarters, year, and so on).
  • Display dimensions that represent age or ranges.
  • Show trends.
  • Display datasets with negative values.
  • Display dimensions that are not related to time (for example, products, projects, or countries).
  • Display data that has long labels.
  • Rank data.
  • Show a large difference between the measure values.

Data requirements

To build this chart, define the data fields as follows:

  • Dimension – One or two dimensions
  • Measure – Two measures
  • Tooltip – (Optional) One or more measures
  • Trellis – (Optional) One dimension
  • Color – (Optional) One dimension

Use case

View the following use cases for the butterfly chart, based on the chart orientation.

The following chart shows gross sales and net sales by product line.

In this case, the bar chart is preferred to the column chart because the dimension is not related to time, and it has data with long labels.

The following chart shows the planned profit versus the actual profit per month.

In this case, the column chart is preferred because time values are better understood when they are graphically represented from left to right.

References

For details on how to customize your visualization, see Visualization settings.

For a whole list of visualizations, see the following topics: