Part of a whole
Bar-of-pie chart
Breaks a combined pie slice into categories shown in an adjacent stacked bar.
- Chart
- Composition
- Detail emphasis
What it answers
How is a combined pie slice subdivided?
- Shape
- Pie linked to a stacked bar
- What it shows
- Details of a minor share.
Example
The question
What makes up the small “other” share of our costs?
Costs by type, with other costs shown as a stacked bar
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Explaining small categories grouped into an Other slice.
Avoid it when
When a single sorted bar chart would be clearer.
How to read it
Read the combined main slice and its linked stacked-bar components.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: nonnegative number
- One row is
- One component of a defined whole. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Use mutually meaningful components and a positive total. Values may be counts or shares. Check rounded percentages.
- Optional
- Series or Parent for multiple wholes. Do not mix totals with their components.
- Preparation
- Choose categories for Other and retain their original values for the linked stacked-bar breakdown.
- Units
- Main pie uses the full total; breakdown labels must distinguish overall from within-Other shares.
Worked example
Main A70, Other 30; bar breaks Other into 20 and 10. These equal 20% and 10% of the overall total, not 66.7% and 33.3% of all data.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 32 |
| B | 40 |
| C | 28 |