Stacked Line/Spline/StepLine Chart

Overview
Chart Building
Spline Stacked Area

Overview

Data that is arranged in columns or rows on a worksheet can be plotted in an area chart. Area charts emphasize the magnitude of change over time, and can be used to draw attention to the total value across a trend.

Stacked area charts are multi series area charts that display the trend of the contribution of each value over time or categories.

Chart Building

As stacked charts should show contribution of different components to the total, we will demonstrate them on an imaginable ACME FastFood, Corp. sales. Let's assume that it sells Ice Cream, Chocolate Bar and Coke all through the year.

So, we have three series of data - one series for each product, and we give proper names to each series:

XML Syntax

XML Code

    
            01
            <data>
        
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              <series name="Ice Cream">
        
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                <point name="Winter" y="12000" />
        
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                <point name="Spring" y="13000" />
        
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                <point name="Summer" y="25000" />
        
            06
                <point name="Autumn" y="16000" />
        
            07
              </series>
        
            08
              <series name="Chocolate Bars">
        
            09
                <point name="Winter" y="12000" />
        
            10
                <point name="Spring" y="12000" />
        
            11
                <point name="Summer" y="15000" />
        
            12
                <point name="Autumn" y="16000" />
        
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              </series>
        
            14
              <series name="Coke">
        
            15
                <point name="Winter" y="10000" />
        
            16
                <point name="Spring" y="17000" />
        
            17
                <point name="Summer" y="19000" />
        
            18
                <point name="Autumn" y="16000" />
        
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              </series>
        
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            </data>

Now we have to tell Y Axis to display these series in as stacked area:

XML Syntax

XML Code

    
            01
            <axes>
        
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              <y_axis>
        
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                <scale mode="Stacked" />
        
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              </y_axis>
        
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            </axes>

And set "Area" as a default series type:

XML Syntax

XML Code

    
            01
            <data_plot_settings default_series_type="Area" />

Everything is ready, here is a sample stacked area chart:

Live Sample: Sample Stacked Area Chart

Spline Stacked Area

Just change default series type to "SplineArea" and get your data displayed in more appealing way:

XML Syntax

XML Code

    
            01
            <data_plot_settings default_series_type="SplineArea" />

Also, let's add area tooltips and make them more informative, to that we will change their format:

XML Syntax

XML Code

    
            01
            <area_series>
        
            02
              <tooltip_settings enabled="true">
        
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                <format><![CDATA[{%SeriesName} - {%Value}$ - {%YPercentOfCategory}{numDecimals:2}%]]></format>
        
            04
              </tooltip_settings>
        
            05
            </area_series>

Here is a sample spline stacked area chart:

Live Sample: Sample Stacked Spline Area Chart