We all know that bar charts can be used to display values spread across various categories or times. We also know that pie charts / donut charts can be used to display percentage breakup of various quantities in a sum total. How about mashing up both to create a Donut Bar chart?
“oh, donut what?!? It sounds like a brand new junk food from dunkin’ donuts”
Well, not really. It is a mash-up or combo chart using which you can display, for eg. sales over last few years along with percentage break-up of individual products. See below to understand.
In the above chart we have mixed a bar chart with a donut chart and sprinkled it generously with a scroll bar form control.
In this charting tutorial, we will learn how to cook a donut bar chart using Microsoft Excel. Scroll down the page to get the downloadable workbook to see this in action.
Recipe for making a donut bar chart
A good donut bar can be healthy while adding variety to your regular menu of charts. To make a neat looking donut bar chart, just follow the recipe.
Ingredients:
Sales data (finely chopped – year vs product level), one donut chart, one bar chart, one scroll bar form control and 5 minutes of spare time.
Step 1: Get your dough, err, data ready
As with any chart, we need the right data in right format to make a perfect donut bar chart.
I have arranged the data for our chart in the below format.
The last column shows the values as per scroll bar position. (more on this in the next steps)
Step 2: Insert a scroll bar control and link it to a cell
Go to developer ribbon tab and insert a scroll bar form control. (learn more about turning on developer toolbar in excel 2007)
Once you have the scroll bar, link it to a cell, say B18.
Also, set the scroll-bar minimum value as 1, maximum value as the number of years you have (in our case it is 14) and incremental change to 1.
Step 3: Determine product-wise breakups and totals based on scroll bar selection
We can use INDEX() excel formula to do this.
What is INDEX excel formula?
INDEX formula (examples) returns a specific value from a range of cells by taking the row and column of that range as input. For eg. =INDEX(A1:C10,2,1) will return the value in 2nd row, 1st column, ie, the value in cell A2.
So, how to write the INDEX formula in our case?
That is your home work. Just use the kitchen sink to experiment.
Once you are done, the product-wise breakups should be listed in a tabular format like this.
Step 4: Put everything together and boil for a minute
We have done all the ground work required to make the donut bar chart. Now, We just need to put everything together and make some charts. Here we have 4 small steps.
- Insert a donut chart using the product-wise breakup data
- Insert a bar chart with the yearly totals
- Insert another series in the bar chart to show the selected year total. Completely overlap this series with the totals series.
- Position everything together.
Finally adjust formatting and colors as per your taste.
That is all, the donut bar is ready for consumption. Serve hot or chilled. The donut bar tastes great with a cup of coffee.
Download the donut bar chart excel work book and play with it
Click here to download the donut bar chart template & workbook. Change the values and chart attributes to understand how this works.
Also try a Bar Pie chart, just follow the same recipe, but replace donut with pie.
Please tell me how your donut bar tasted using comments. 🙂
Recommended charting tutorials for you:
21 Responses to “Red vs. Blue – 35 Cool Visualizations on 2008 US Presidential Election”
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
[...] post by WP-AutoBlog Import var AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var [...]
Impressive list, though a few of these clearly qualify as junk (the second one with the hairy circle segments, for example).
Also, that McCain vs. Obama tax plan comparison is wildly distorted, for a debunking and redesign see here: http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/
Holy information/data overload. There are some great visualizations here, but also that are not so good. This list may have been better in small chunks.
[...] Haired Dilbert has some pretty cool visualizations for the ‘08 Election featured on his blog. I really liked this [...]
Cool list!
I know another widget that might have your interest.
It shows the progression of polls and uses data from electoral-vote.com.
I think you might like it:-)
http://www.youcalc.com/apps/1221747067033
... and its easy to put on your blog and fits in your sidebar!
Make a difference, keep on voting!
@Robert .. Agree, few of the charts are not really great. thanks for link, I have updated the post with the link.
@Tony ... That was the point. I wanted to compile a huge list with all the visualizations worth a look.
@Michael .. Welcome to PHD blog 🙂 thanks for sharing that link.
[...] Check the rest out here. [...]
[...] has progressed. With one look you can see on what issues candidates debated most. Also see these 35 different visualizations on 2008 US Elections [via Information [...]
[...] Red vs. Blue - 35 Cool Visualizations on 2008 US Presidential Election Perspctv - another Election Tracking Site. Presidential Watch - what various websites are saying. The Economist’s pole - Economists prefer Obama over McCain. NYTimes - Poll Tracker. Gallup poll tracker… Google Maps Projections Tracker … [...]
[...] Aqui pode igualmente encontrar uma compilação de 35 [...]
[...] 35 Cool Visualizations on 2008 US Presidential Election - Obama vs. McCain [...]
[...] Also see these 35 visualizations from on Obama vs. McCain in US Polls. [...]
First let me say that I love this blog. I have been scouring the Internet and more than likely overlooking the obvious. Can someone lead me to the OFFICIAL source of elections results? I am looking for voter data by county or even town if possible.
The reason I ask is because on Boston.com, they listed the results by town, and have to assume that there is an offical source.
Anyway, any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated!
@Brock: Thank you so much. I guess fec.gov should put up the results as soon as all counties report the results officially. I dont know but I guess it should take a few days before the data is compiled and released to public.
Alternatively did you see what nytimes.com has to offer? They have a county level breakup of results and majority figures in visualization form.
Thanks for your help!
[...] 35 Cool Visualizations on 2008 US Presidential Election - Obama vs…. [...]
@Brock: You can get the data from USAToday site : http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/president.htm
just scroll down and select the state name to see its county results in tabular form.
Thanks again. I also stumbled upon this. http://general-election-2008-data.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/json/votes/2008/. It appears as if there was a Google project with the data. I do not know a web programming language, but I am sure there is an easy way to catch the data and put it into a database.
[...] to give a deeper insight into the elections. A top 35 of those visualizations are listed in the Chandoo.org website. B. Shneiderman’s very interesting network analysis of the Senatorial voting patterns is [...]
ts not cool or notx