I have been playing Zelda: Breath of the wild a lot these days and I LOVE the game. Considered one of the BEST video games all time, BOTW is beautifully designed and offers a lot of entertainment. Don’t freak out yet, Chandoo.org hasn’t suddenly branched into a video gaming blog. Instead, I am here to talk about Stamina Wheel Chart.
Stamina what?!?
In the breath of the wild video game, Link the lead character has stamina. As he runs, climbs, flies or swims the stamina runs out. Link can have up to 300% stamina. To show how much stamina he has, Nintendo uses Stamina Wheel. You can see a sample of the 300% stamina wheel running out slowly as Link is flying to the right.
I thought it would be cool to recreate this stamina wheel in Excel. It is a kinda sorta gauge chart with ability to go up to 300%. See the demo below and read on to learn how to make this in Excel.
So how to make the Stamina Wheel Chart?
This chart works well when you want to compare actual vs. target (or budget vs. actual) performance where there is a possibility of >100% achievement.
Imagine you have data like this in 2 cells. You can easily calculate Pct in the third cell.
Quickly calculate these six values using simple IF formulas. The filled portion will be either 1 or fraction depending on the Pct. The gap will be difference from 1. See below list for sample formulas
- Circle 1 Filled: =MIN(pct, 1)
- 2 Filled =IF(pct>1,MIN(pct-1,1),0)
- 3 Filled =IF(pct>2,MIN(pct-2,1),0)
- Gap =1-Filled for all circles
Now that our data prep is done, let’s go with making some charts.
Step 1: Make donut chart from our 3 circles
The first step for making stamina wheel chart is to create donut chart from our calculated values in Table 2 above.
We get this. (Note if your donuts look different, go to Chart Design ribbon and click on “Switch row / column button”.
Step 2: Convert inner circle to Pie Chart
Right click on circle 1 and select “Change series chart type” option. Now set up the options such that,
- Circle 1 should be pie chart
- Circle 2 & 3 should be donut charts, but on secondary axis.
Our stamina wheel chart at this stage looks like,
Step 3: Color everything
We want to set “Filled” portions in one color and “Gap” portions in white color.
Carefully select individual points on the chart (there are total 6 points) and color them one at a time. You may need to change “Actual” value to see the gap portions as some points will have zero for them.
We will end up with this chart.
Step 4: Clean up and Label
We are nearly done. Remove any unnecessary chart elements (title, legend etc.)
For label, Select the chart, add a circle shape to it. Move it so that it is centered on the chart. Fill the circle with white color and link it to a cell that has the Pct completion value.
Our final stamina wheel chart looks like this:
Stamina Wheel Chart – Video Tutorial
I made a video tutorial explaining my obsession with Breath of the Wild and how to make this chart in Excel. Watch it below if you need help. You can also see this my YouTube Channel.
Download Zelda Stamina Wheel Chart – Excel Template
If you want your own stamina wheel for a presentation or fund-raiser, just download it from here. Change the “Actual” and “Target” values and your stamina wheel will be ready.
More ways to visualize Budget vs. Actual data
Stamina wheel is a type of gauge chart. Gauges or speedometer charts have a lot of critics. That said, they are also very familiar metaphors. If you are looking for some inspiration and alternatives for boring budget vs. actual charts, then consider the stamina wheel. It is fun conversation starter.
If you want some alternatives to stamina wheel, check out below charts:
- Thermometer chart – ever green way to visualize budget vs. actual data
- Beautiful Budget vs. Actual chart – you got to see this to believe the hype
- Target vs. Actual – Biker on a hill chart – a biker chasing the target, what else I can say
- Speedometer / gauge chart – simpler version of stamina wheel.
Links to improve your Excel Stamina
Get full stamina wheel + bonus with this AWESOME Excel course. Learn everything about data analysis, charting and dashboards from the comfort of your couch or office chair.
Click here to know more about Excel School.
PS: The link to Breath of the Wild game uses my Amazon affiliate code. If you end up buying anything from Amazon after clicking it, I get to make few cents to buy my next game.
One Response to “SQL vs. Power Query – The Ultimate Comparison”
Enjoyed your SQL / Power Query podcast (A LOT). I've used SQL a little longer than Chandoo. Power Query not so much.
Today I still use SQL & VBA for my "go to" applications. While I don't pull billions of rows, I do pull millions. I agree with Chandoo about Power Query (PQ) lack of performance. I've tried to benchmark PQ to SQL and I find that a well written SQL will work much faster. Like mentioned in the podcast, my similar conclusion is that SQL is doing the filtering on the server while PQ is pulling data into the local computer and then filtering the data. I've heard about PQ query folding but I still prefer SQL.
My typical excel application will use SQL to pull data from an Enterprise DB. I load data into Structured Tables and/or Excel Power Pivot (especially if there's lot of data).
I like to have a Control Worksheet to enter parameters, display error messages and have user buttons to execute VBA. I use VBA to build/edit parameters used in the SQL. Sometimes I use parameter-based SQL. Sometimes I create a custom SQL String in a hidden worksheet that I then pull into VBA code (these may build a string of comma separated values that's used with a SQL include). Another SQL trick I like to do is tag my data with a YY-MM, YY-QTR, or YY-Week field constructed form a Transaction Date.
In an application, I like to create a dashboard(s) that may contain hyperlinks that allow the end-user to drill into data. Sometimes the hyperlink will point to worksheet and sometimes to a supporting workbook. In some cases, I use a double click VBA Macro that will pull additional data and direct the user to a supplemental worksheet or pivot table.
In recent years I like Dynamic Formulas & Lambda Functions. I find this preferable to pivot tales and slicers. I like to use a Lambda in conjunction with a cube formula to pull data from a power pivot data model. I.E. a Lambda using a cube formula to aggregate Accounting Data by a general ledger account and financial period. Rather than present info in a power pivot table, you can use this combination to easily build financial reports in a format that's familiar to Accounting Professionals.
One thing that PQ does very well is consolidating data from separate files. In the old days this was always a pain.
I've found that using SQL can be very trying (even for someone with experience). It's largely an iterative process. Start simple then use Xlookup (old days Match/Index). Once you get the relationships correct you can then use SQL joins to construct a well behaved SQL statement.
Most professional enterprise systems offer a schema that's very valuable for constructing SQL statements. For any given enterprise system there's often a community of users that will share SQL. I.E. MS Great Plains was a great source (but I haven't used them in years).
Hope this long reply has value - keep up the good work.