Area Charts

Area charts share features with bar charts and line charts. Like bar charts, they can be used to summarize categorical data. Like line charts, they can be used for time-series data. The decision to use an area chart over the other options is mostly a cosmetic one.

How to create a simple area chart

1. In the Chart Builder, click the Gallery tab and select Area in the Choose From list.
2. Drag the Simple Area icon onto the canvas.
3. Drag a variable to the x-axis drop zone. You can use a scale or categorical (nominal or ordinal) variable.
4. If necessary, specify a statistic in the Element tab. The result of any statistic determines the height of the bars. If the statistic you want does not appear in the Statistic drop-down list, it may require a variable. Drag a scale variable to the y-axis drop zone and check if the statistic is now available.

Additional features

Stacking. Stacking adds dimensionality within the chart. Stacking creates segments in the area. Be careful that you choose the right statistic. When the values are added together (stacked), the result must make sense. For example, adding and stacking mean (averaged) values is not usually meaningful. For more information about specifying stacking and clustering, see Adding and editing grouping variables . The gallery also provides options for a stacked area chart.

Paneling. Paneling creates a table of charts, with a cell for each category in the paneling variable. See the topic Adding Paneling Variables for more information.