Stacked Column Chart in Excel (Table of Contents)
Stacked Column Chart in Excel
Stacked column charts are the inbuilt available type of chart that can be used to compare the different items amongst the same group.
Suppose we have a dataset of sales over the different quarters of the year and we have sold various type of products during the year. Now if we want to see that which product has contributed what percentage of share to the total share of the sales of that quarter we have to use Stacked Column chart in Excel.
In this case, using a bar chart will not be an idle option as this will not be able to help us with us analysis the actual query.
The stacked chart that clearly represents sales of products in different quarters.
Column chart that only represents the sales of a different product but not allows us to easily know what is the share of different product in the total sales?
So stacked column charts are those chart options that allow a user to combine the data of one group and then show that data in different segments that correspond to different sections amongst the same group. Stacked charts basically make the column charts one on another column chart and the charts that are prepared as stacked are like fixing one bar chart on another chart.
How to Create Stacked Column Chart in Excel?
Creating a stacked column chart is not as difficult as it seems, creating a stacked column chart involves only some clicks and you will be done with creating the stacked column chart.
Stacked Column Chart in Excel Example #1
Let’s consider a case in which the company sold four type of products in a year and we have data on the sales of these products.
Now we want to know what type of product has contributed what percentage to the total sales we can use a stacked column chart.
Step 1: Firstly enter the data for which you want to create a stacked column chart and select the data.
Step 2: Then go to toolbar tab, here you can see “insert” option.
Click on Insert and then click on column chart options as shown below.
In Column chart options you will see several options, choose stacked column stack option to create stacked column charts.
Step 3: After selecting the data as mentioned above and selecting a stacked column chart. You can see below chart.
Step 4: You can also use DESIGN option to make the chart more presentable.
Click on the Format option and then choose the font that suits the chart.
Step 5:
By this step, a stacked column chart is already prepared but by using this step we can add life to the old spreadsheet charts and make them look different.
- Add chart elements
In the chart elements, we can add all the above-listed elements in our stacked column chart and this will add more of the information to the normal usual stacked charts.
Here one of the chart elements such as legend is used. Click on legend Select legend at the bottom.
Now the Legend will look at bottom of our Chart.
- Quick layouts.
If we are confused about what elements should be in our stacked column chart than this option will be of our utmost use. In this option, we can simply hover on the icons in the quick layout elements and can see what elements are inserted by these options.
- Change colors
Sometimes this become important that the color plays an important role in the graphs, especially if the data belongs to the paint industry.
Right click on the Chart Select Format Chart Area.
By Selecting Format Chart Area to go to fill> Gradient Fill. Select your color.
To change the Color of the Plot Area Right click on Format Plot Area.
Select fill> Gradient Fill and Select your color.
By using the change color option we can simply change the theme of the chart and can choose more comfortable colors for our stacked column chart.
To add Chart title go to Layout>Chart title>select Above chart.
Chart tile is added to the above chart.
Finally, Stacked Column Chart looks like this.
Stacked Column Chart in Excel Example #2
Suppose now we have a case of a college where we want to know how much lectures has been taken by which lecturer. In this case, we use a stacked column chart.
Then go to the toolbar tab, here you can see “insert” option.
Click on Insert and then click on column chart options as shown below.
After selecting the data as mentioned above and selecting a stacked column chart. You can see below chart.
Follow the steps as per Above Example i.e Example 1 to get the desired Stacked Column Chart.
Pros of using Stacked Column Chart in Excel
- They help in easily knowing the contribution of a factor to the group.
- They are easy to understand.
- Easy to visualize results on bar graphs.
- Easy to depict the difference between the various inputs of the same group.
Cons of using Stacked Column Chart in Excel
- These charts do not give good results when it comes to deeper analysis of data.
- Stacked columns charts are useful only if there are limited segments in a group, it there are many inputs that belong to the same group than stacked column chart will be very congested and this will make the analysis difficult.
- Overlapping of data labels, in some cases this is seen that the data labels overlap each other and this will make the data to be difficult to interpret.
Things to Remember
- Stacked column chart in Excel can only be prepared when we have more than 1 data that has to be represented in a bar chart. If we have only one data that is to be displayed then we can only make a Bar chart and not the stacked column chart.
- Each column in the bar represents the data that belongs to that group only. Suppose if we have to show the data of two products sales in Q1 than the bar will represent the data of product A and the same bar will have the data of Product B.
- Only one data from one row can be represented in the bar chart of the stacked column charts.
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This has been a guide to Stacked Column Chart in Excel. Here we discuss its uses and how to create Stacked Column Chart in Excel with excel examples and downloadable excel templates. You may also look at these useful functions in excel –
