Column Chart

Function: a!columnChartField()

Displays numerical data as vertical bars. Use a column chart to graphically display data that changes over time. If trend is more important than specific values, consider using a line chart.

See also: Line Chart, Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Chart Series, UX Charts Best Practices, Chart Color Schemes

Parameters

Categories

• The order of items in the Categories array determines the display order of categories on the chart with the left-most item in the array appearing on the far left of the x-axis.
• For each null or empty item in the array passed to Categories, [Category #] displays on the x-axis with # as the index number in the Categories array of the null or empty item. For example, [Category 1].
• The index of each item in the Categories array must match with the index of its Series data value. You can retrieve a dictionary from the data field of a query result, and then use a!chartSeries() to create the chart series array.

Series

• A single Series item produces a single bar for each Categories item with all bars the same color.
• Multiple Series items when Stacking is NONE or null produces a set of bars for each Categories item - one bar for each Series item with each bar in that set a different color. The order of the label items determine the display order of the columns in each set with the first label item appearing at the top of the set.
• Multiple Series items when Stacking is NORMAL produces a single bar for each categories item with each Series item displayed as a different segment of the bar in a different color, so they appear stacked on top of each other. The order of the series.label items determine the display order of the bar segments with the first series.label item appearing furthest from the axis.
• When you have multiple Series items, Appian recommends setting Show legend to true, so user's know what each color represents. When you only have one Series item, you can use the Label or Instructions fields to tell users what the data represents.
• If the Series argument has a non-null label value paired with a 0, null, or empty data value, the data value still displays in the legend.
• If the Series argument has a null or empty label value paired with a non-null data value, the label value displays as [Series #] with # as the index number of the data value. For example, [Series 1].
• If series.data values are small and less than a whole number, Appian recommends settings allowDecimalAxisLabels to true.

Other Notes

• Column charts with a height of "TALL", "MEDIUM" or "SHORT" will show a scroll bar if too many categories are provided. "MICRO" charts will only show scroll bars on mobile devices; on a web browser, these charts will adjust to fit the size of the column.

Examples

Copy and paste an example into the INTERFACE DEFINITION in EXPRESSION MODE to see it displayed.

Single Series Column Chart with Label, Y-Axis Title, and Tooltips

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a!columnChartField(
  label: "Most Tasks",
  categories: {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug"},
  series: {
    a!chartSeries(label: "Tasks", data: {34, 30, 30, 27, 24, 19, 18, 16})
  },
  yAxisTitle: "Tasks",
  showLegend: false,
  showTooltips: true
)

Displays the following:

Multiple Series Column Chart with Label, X-Axis Title, Y-Axis Title, and Legend

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a!columnChartField(
  label: "2012 Tempo Usage Trends",
  categories: {"Qt 1", "Qt 2", "Qt 3", "Qt 4"},
  series: {
    a!chartSeries(label: "IT", data: {92, 94, 93, 95}),
    a!chartSeries(label: "Human Services", data: {84, 83, 85, 86}),
    a!chartSeries(label: "Sales", data: {70, 63, 90, 72}),
    a!chartSeries(label: "Marketing", data: {90, 70, 90, 90})
  },
  colorScheme: "SUNSET",
  xAxisTitle: "Quarter",
  yAxisTitle: "% Active",
  showLegend: true
)

Displays the following:

Multiple Series Column Chart with Label, X-Axis Title, Stacking, Legend, and Data Labels

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a!columnChartField(
  label: "Defect Tickets",
  categories: {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"},
  series: {
    a!chartSeries(label: "Internal", data: {3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}),
    a!chartSeries(label: "Customer", data: {4, 3, 3, 2, 4, 2, 1, 2, 0, 0, 1, 2})
  },
  colorScheme: "MOSS",
  yAxisTitle: "Number of Tickets Logged",
  stacking: "NORMAL",
  showLegend: true,
  showDataLabels: true
)

Displays the following:

See also: a!queryRecordType(), Tempo Report Best Practices