What is a bar chart?

A bar chart (aka bar graph, column chart) plots numeric values for levels of a categorical feature as bars. Levels are plotted on one chart axis, and values are plotted on the other axis. Each categorical value claims one bar, and the length of each bar corresponds to the bar’s value.

Can a bar chart be horizontal or vertical?

The bars on a bar chart can be horizontal or vertical, but the vertical version is most commonly known as a column chart. As mentioned above, bar graphs can be plotted using horizontal or vertical bars. For the purpose of this post, we will only focus on horizontal bars.

What is a grouped bar graph?

The grouped bar graph is also called the clustered bar graph, which is used to represent the discrete value for more than one object that shares the same category. In this type of bar chart, the total number of instances are combined into a single bar.

When should you use a bar graph?

Bar graphs are used to match things between different groups or to trace changes over time. Yet, when trying to estimate change over time, bar graphs are most suitable when the changes are bigger. Bar charts possess a discrete domain of divisions and are normally scaled so that all the data can fit on the graph.