How to Pick the Right Chart Type for Your Data

If youve ever stared blankly at a "choose chart type" menu, youre not alone. Whats the first choice made between making a good chart and a bad one? Picking the right tool for the job! Heres a no-jargon guide on when to use bar, line, scatter, pie/doughnut, polar area, and radar charts; plus quick, real-life examples for each.

Chart Type Quick Reference Table

Bar Charts

When to use:

When you want to compare values across categories.

Best for:

• Rankings ("Top 10 movies by box office sales")
• Names, groups, or distinct items
• Before/after or yes/no comparisons

Example:

Line Charts

When to use:

When you want to show change or trends over time.

Best for:

• Stock prices, website visits, monthly sales, etc.
• Anything measured in continuous regular intervals (days, months, quarters)
• Showing patterns (seasonal spikes, growth, decline)

When to avoid:

• You have unrelated categories or groups (use a bar chart instead)

Example:

Pie & Doughnut Charts

When to use:

When you want to show how parts make up a whole, especially if there are only a few categories.

Best for:

• Market share among a few rivals
• Budget breakdowns
• Survey responses ("Which feature do customers love most?")

When to avoid:

• When you have negative/zero values or values that are close to each other
• No more than 5-6 slices (after this, they begin to get confusing)
• In most cases, a bar chart is a better choice and easier to read

Example:

Scatter Plots

When to use:

When you want to see relationships or patterns between two numeric variables.

Best for:

• Spotting correlation ("Does spending more on advertising lead to more sales?")
• Outliers (biggest spenders, fastest runners)
• Distributions (clumps or clusters)

When to avoid:

• When you don't have enough data points to see a pattern

Example:

Polar Area Charts

When to use:

When you want to compare categories in a circular format, especially for cyclical data.

Best for:

• Distinct categories (like months) that wrap around (e.g., weather, sales, cyclic phenomena)
• Showing quantities for each

When to avoid:

• Youre not using cyclical data (a bar chart may be a better choice in most cases)

Example:

Radar Charts

When to use:

When you want to compare values for multiple features/traits on one scale.

Best for:

• Comparing profiles ("Player statistics by skill," "Department strengths and weaknesses")
• Survey results (rate these 1–10)
• Multi-factor evaluations

When to avoid:

• You have many different variables (this makes visualizing and comparing difficult)
• In many cases, a bar chart is a better choice and easier to read

Example:

The Big Idea

Start with your data and your story. Ask, "What relationship or comparison am I communicating?" Pick the chart that spotlights that story, then let SnappyCharts help you build it.

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