Compare and rank
Ranked bar chart
Sorts category bars by value to make their ranking explicit.
- Chart
- Ranking
- Comparison
What it answers
Who ranks first and by how much?
- Shape
- Bars ordered by length
- What it shows
- Leaders, laggards and gaps.
Example
The question
Who closed the most deals this quarter, and by how much?
Deals closed by salesperson, Q3 2025
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Emphasising an ordered leaderboard.
Avoid it when
When a natural order, such as age bands, is more meaningful.
How to read it
Read sorted bars from the largest or smallest end.
Note
A sorted bar-chart variant.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: number
- One row is
- One category and its measured or aggregated value. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Optional
- Optional Series or label. Wide alternative: one category column plus one value column per series.
- Preparation
- Aggregate category values and sort ascending or descending, unless a natural order is more informative.
- Units
- Use the measured variable's stated unit consistently. No denominator is implied unless the value is a rate or proportion.
Worked example
Data A30, B45, C25. Sort B, A, C. B exceeds second-place A by 15.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 30 |
| B | 45 |
| C | 25 |