Everyone knows the famous pie chart, which was created by William Playfair in the 18th century. It is the most commonly used chart of all times and has food in its name, which is also nice. But, if you have the feeling you don’t know enough about it yet: don’t worry! We made this article especially for you so you are up and running with it in no time.
The main reason to use the pie chart is in case you want to compare different parts of a whole and to have a quick idea about the proportional distribution of your data. It shows the proportions or percentages by dividing the circle in pieces. Every piece represents its proportion to the full circle, which is the sum of all data (100%).
You can find the pie chart in the ‘pie & donut’ section.
When you add this chart to your dashboard, you’ll see there are two slots to add data to: ‘Category’ and ‘Measure’.
As mentioned above, the pie chart is used for visualizing the proportions of the different components of a category. You put your column with the categories in the ‘Category’ slot, and the column with the measurements in the ‘Measure’ slot.
The pie chart is a real signature chart. However, it can be a tricky one since our brain is not able to interpret the sizes of different slices of the pie. Especially when the pieces are similar, we can’t easily tell which one is bigger. So there is **one rule ** you should abide if you want to keep the chart relevant: only use it when you have less than 5 slices. If you want to compare more parts, a bar chart of column chart are better suited.
Additionally, you might prefer to see the absolute values instead of the percentages. Good news! In the settings, you have an option to change this. It is also possible to show no values at all.
We love the traditional pie chart, but sometimes it is nice to change the layout a little. You can choose to only show half a pie and to replace the typical legend by modern labels.
The legend in this chart can be used to show or hide specific elements by clicking them.
Another chart resembling the pie chart is the donut chart. If you want to compare more than one category, the stacked bar chart of stacked column chart are a perfect fit.