by Jeff McWherter
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| Choosing Your Chart Type |
Crystal Reports 2008 provides 16 chart types that are very
professional and will help you visualize your data. The information in Figure 2
contains the 16 different types of charts for Crystal Reports 2008 and the type
of data each chart should represent.
Figure 2: Crystal Reports 2008 Chart Types
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Chart Type
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Usage
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Bar
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A chart with rectangular bars with a length proportional
to the value that they represent. Useful to show relative comparisons between
items or showing the change in a single value over time.
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Line
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A graph created by connecting a series of data points
together with a line; useful for representing changes in multiple values over
time.
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Area
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A line chart with the area between the line and the axis
filled in. Volumetrically represents changes in single or multiple values
over time.
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Pie
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A circular chart divided into pie-shaped sectors that
represent percentages or relative quantities of the whole.
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Doughnut
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A pie chart with a blank space in the center; additional
doughnut charts can be nested inside of each other that may or may not
represent data that is related.
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3-D riser
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A three dimensional bar chart, useful for comparing
multiple groups of values in a single chart.
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3-D surface
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A three dimensional chart; can be used to show how a
particular value changes in relation to two different variables.
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XY scatter
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A chart that plots data points along two axes; useful for
analyzing similarities between pairs or sets of values, or comparing large
numbers of data points.
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Radar
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A circular chart with a radial line representing each
variable; points closer to the center represent a lower value. Useful in
comparing multiple variables all related to a single item.
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Bubble
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A chart similar to an XY Scatter chart that replaces data
points with bubbles whose size is determined by the relative size of a third
value.
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Stock
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A chart similar to a bar chart, however, the bottoms of
the bars do not have to start at the axis. Useful in illustrating values that
have a range with a minimum and maximum.
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Numeric Axis
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A chart that can be similar to a bar, line, or area chart
that can use a time/date or a numeric value for the X-axis rather than a
relative value.
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Gauge
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A chart that represents values with a “needle” pointing to
the value on the circular chart, similar to the fuel gauge in a car. May have
more than one needle representing different values on the same chart.
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Gantt
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A chart that represents a project schedule, with a bar for
each task showing the beginning and ending date for each task.
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Funnel
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This chart is shaped like a funnel, with the largest value
represented at the top in the widest part of the funnel, and progressively
decreasing proportional values as the chart goes downwards. The sides of the
funnel can “pinch” in to show a decrease within a subset set of values.
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Histogram
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This chart shows a data set broken down into (usually 7 or
8) bars that are sized based on how many times a value in each range
occurred.
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Specifying Chart Data
The "Data" tab of the Chart Expert allows you to
select which data you would like visualized in the chart. This tab allows you
to perform summary options such as a "count" and "Sum" for
the values that are shown on the report. The summary options can be evaluated
(calculated) for all records, on change of a field or for each record in the
data set.
Figure 3: The Chart Expert Data Tab
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User Comments
Title:
i agree andy!
Name:
Pooja
Date:
2011-02-26 12:24:52 PM
Comment:
you mentioned every comment, but you could have went little more indepth.
like i had problems in understanding the working of various things in data tab, bt u did not explain anything in detail.
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Title:
Yes, but documentation is rather poor
Name:
Andy Foreman
Date:
2009-07-17 10:23:34 AM
Comment:
Your article on Crystal Reports 2008 charting was very good, and very honest too. However, two things you did not mention are rather important...
1 - Documentation for Crystal 2008 is overall, rather poor. Although they give you the basics, the inevitable detail questions that popup are not covered. For example, I did a chart on Crystal 2008 where some of my formulas were available for the chart, while others were not. Why? I have no idea - its not documented and indeed the documentation suggests that ALL formulas can be used, but in fact, they cannot. And that leads to...
2 - Support for Crystal is well, horrible. You have to go through SAPs web forums and if you have ever visited the SAP web site - well, there is an example of a web site run amock! You submit a question there and if you are lucky, you will get an answer a day or so later - sometimes not at all.
Amazing to spend this much money for Crystal and they cannot provide good documentation or support.
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