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Bar Chart¶
Compare values across categories or summarize numeric columns with flexible aggregation functions.
What is a Bar Chart?¶
A bar chart displays data as vertical bars. How the bars are created depends on your data type:
- Categorical data (Nominal, DateTime): Each unique category gets its own bar, sized by count or aggregated value. For example, a column of department names produces one bar per department.
- Numeric data (Continuous, Integer, Count): Each column becomes a bar, with its values summarized by a function such as sum, mean, or median. For example, three columns of quarterly sales produce three bars showing totals.
Bar charts also support multiple aggregation functions (sum, mean, median, min, max, standard deviation), giving you flexibility in how values are summarized.
When to Use a Bar Chart¶
- When you want to compare counts or values across categories
- When you need to summarize numeric columns side by side
- When you want flexible aggregation (sum, mean, median, min, max, or standard deviation)
- When you want to visualize grouped or stacked comparisons using multiple frequency columns
Example Output¶
A typical bar chart shows one bar per category or column, with bar height representing the aggregated value. Labels identify each bar and the Y-axis shows the scale.
What the sheet records about your settings¶
The User input box in the top left of the worksheet does not only echo the columns you picked. Under a Settings heading it also states the options that produced the chart below it, so a sheet opened a year later says what it was built from rather than leaving you to guess which boxes were ticked.
This matters most where the choice leaves no other trace. Two Pareto charts drawn from the same data, one grouping the small categories into an "Others" bar and one dropping them, look like two different data sets unless the sheet says which was done.
Two rules decide what appears:
- Every selector and checkbox is printed on every run, whether or not you changed it from the default. A reader who sees nothing cannot tell a default from a setting the product does not report, so the box states all of them.
- A value you had to type is printed only when you typed it, and so is a setting that only means something once another box is ticked. Its absence is the answer.
The worksheet is protected¶
Under the last block in column A, in small italic text, the sheet carries one note:
This worksheet is protected to prevent accidental changes. To unprotect it, select the Review tab and then Unprotect Sheet.
Every analysis worksheet Quantum XL writes is protected, and every one carries this note. The wording is the same on all of them. Protection is there so that a click or a stray keystroke cannot overwrite a number the chart is drawn from, or move a chart off its anchor.
Three things are still allowed while the sheet is protected: formatting cells, formatting columns, and formatting rows. So you can widen a column, change a number format, or restyle a heading without unprotecting anything. Editing a value, editing a chart, and everything else are blocked.
For those, unprotect the sheet from Excel's Review tab, exactly as the note says. The protection carries no password, so Unprotect Sheet takes it straight off without asking for one.
Under Settings, this tool records one row:
| Row | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Report type | Cluster Chart, Stacked Chart or Individual Charts |
One row is enough because the report type is the only choice that changes what the sheet shows, and it changes the Y axis maximum and the number of charts drawn, so the sheet has to say which was picked.
Learn More¶
- How-To: Step-by-step tutorials for different scenarios
- Preparing Your Data: Data types, layouts, and the behavior matrix
- Options: All chart settings and customization options