Bar Charts or Line Graphs?

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Do you prefer representing data with Bar Charts or Line Graphs?

Bar Graph
5
56%
Line Graph
2
22%
They are both about equal.
1
11%
What?! You can graph in php?!
1
11%
 
Total votes: 9

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infolock
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Posts: 1708
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2002 7:47 pm

Bar Charts or Line Graphs?

Post by infolock »

Me and a buddy have been debating on this for some time now. He believes that line graphs are a better way to go about displaying data over a period of time, but I believe bar graphs are the way to go.

He says this way you can see the data as it progresses, but I say all you need to know is the max data for each given period.

Take for example :

You have 2 variables in the chart. one is amount of users, the other is time.

The whole point in the chart, is to determine the maximum amount of users per hour, and then chart out the results.


To me, bar charts just look 100x better then line graphs since you can use 3d charts and make it look very organized.

line charts are, well, line charts heh. It's sort of like following a radio bandwidth signal if you get my drift, as in not really that exciting.

Not to mention, line graphs are a PAIN in the ASS to generate dynamic data...


So what do you all think? Bar Charts or Line Graphs? I left pie charts out because there are times and places that pie charts are needed, this isn't one of them.
Quietus
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Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2003 1:59 am

Post by Quietus »

They're different ways of displaying data, for different purposes. If you were doing a chart of bandwidth against time, say, I'd recommend a line graph instead, then you can tell the amount of data sent from the area of the graph.

But for your purposes, I agree with you, a bar chart would be better. With a pie chart for displaying an average day's number of users per hour as a summary.
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m3mn0n
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Location: Calgary, Canada

Post by m3mn0n »

depends on the data, but I'd say Bar usually.
qads
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Posts: 1199
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 10:02 am
Location: Brisbane

Post by qads »

doest this make a better sense to you?
http://www.digitalcoder.co.uk/stat/
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