Stacked area chart

This chart shows how a measure changed over time. The area between the axis and the line is filled with colors to indicate the volume. If multiple data categories are displayed, they overlap. The top line represents the sum of all data.

This type of chart is used when it's important to see totals by category. For example, the total of sales broken down by product category.

Carefully select measures to build a chart. For example, it's not correct to add the number of customers to the sales amount or the purchase and sales amounts.

Sections in the wizard

Section in the wizard	Description
X	Dimension. Only one field can be specified. This dimension is usually a date. In this case, make sure that the Date data type is specified for this field in the dataset. This is required for correct sorting and signature display. For better visualization, you can group dates into weeks, months, and years (to learn more, see Field settings).
Y	Measure. You can specify multiple measures. If you add more than one measure to a section, the Colors section contains a dimension named Measure Names.
Colors	Dimension or the Measure Names field. Affects the color of lines. Measure Names is removed by deleting measures from the Y-axis.
Sorting	Dimension or measure. A dimension from the X and Colors sections or a measure from the Y-axis can be used. Affects the sorting of values on the X-axis or areas along the Y-axis.
Signatures	Measure. Displays measure values on the chart. If multiple measures are added to the Y section, drag Measure Values to this section.
Chart filters	Dimension or measure. Used as a filter.

Creating an area chart

To create an area chart:

1. On the DataLens home page, click Create chart.
2. Under Dataset, select a dataset for visualization.
3. Select Stacked area chart as the chart type.
4. Drag a dimension from the dataset to the X section. The values are displayed in the lower part of the chart on the X-axis.
5. Drag one or more measures from the dataset to the Y section. The values are displayed as areas along the Y-axis.

Configuring the display of nullvalues

If the source data includes a row where the measure value is null, this point won't be shown on the chart at default settings. For example, if the source includes a row with a date (20.07.2022) but the sales amount is missing for it.

You can use settings for chart sections to show null values:

1. In the section with a measure whose values you want to show, in the upper-right corner, click (the icon appears when you hover over the section).
2. In Empty values (null), select Display as 0.
3. Click Apply.

Now, the chart will use 0 instead of null.

If a row is missing in the source data, the chart section settings won't affect the measure display on the chart. For example, if the source data doesn't have a row with a certain date (20.07.2022), nothing will be shown for this date on the chart.

For more information, see Configuring the display of null values.

Recommendations

• If the values of the categories contain a large amount of text, try to reduce it. Then the signatures on the diagram will look more accurate. You can use string functions in the calculated fields or conditional operators CASE.

• Don't display more than 3-5 areas on the chart.

• To make it easier to track the dynamics, place the largest or most important categories closer to the chart base. To do this, drag the desired measure to the Sorting section or set up their order in the Y section. For example, to track sales dynamics in the Household cleaners category.

  Chart example