Spotfire Ideas Portal
Several users are disappointed that Spotfire doesn't have all the charting features available in Excel. One feature I'd like to see is the ability to overlap side-by-side bars.
I know we can stack bars, but that is not what I'm talking about.
The attached image is an example from Excel. The dark purple and the light purple are the same measure colored by a category. They overlap so that the light purple extends higher than the dark purple. To clarify, this is not a stacked bar chart. Both bars originate from 0. The value of the dark purple is about 250, the value of the light purple is about 540.
Thanks JJ, that is clear now.
Yes, it is like side-by-side bars, but centered at the same position, allowing them to overlap.
As you observed, if the bar in back is shorter than the bar in front, it won't be visible at all. In this particular case, that is what is desired -- if the bar in back is visible, you have something you need to investigate.
Better still, look at the attached image of what is possible in Tableau. You can not only let the bars exist at the same center point, but you can control the width so both are visible.
There are surely cases where a hidden bar might obscure something important, so I would want them to be side-by-side. But if I have the option in Spotfire to let side-by-side bars overlap on the same center position, then I can present my data in an additionally meaningful way. Until then, our users will continue using Excel or Tableau.
JJ, am I right in thinking this is like side by side bars except that the bars are centered at the same position, and then you need to be able to vary the width of the bars to be able to see them all? I don't fully grasp your screenshot since it seems that if the light purple would be smaller than the dark purple it would be invisible, but perhaps you use this only for data where you are sure that the light purple is always larger than the dark purple? Any more elaborate usecase description is appreciated.
Here's an example of overlapping bars in Tableau http://www.vizwiz.com/2011/08/tableau-tip-7-easy-steps-to-create.html