Line Charts

A Line Chart shows individual data points connected by lines. They are commonly used to show changes over time, highlight trends, and identify outliers that deviate significantly from a trend.

When to Use a Line Chart

• If you have a continuous dataset that changes over time.
• If your dataset is too big for a bar chart.
• If you want to display multiple series for the same timeline.
• If you want to visualize trends instead of exact values.
• Use a standard line chart instead of a smooth line chart when you want to clearly see the exact data points and their fluctuations over time

When to Avoid Using a Line Chart

• Line charts work better with bigger datasets, so, if you have a small one, use a bar chart instead.
• If you are comparing values between distinct categories, a bar chart is a better option.
• If you want to represent parts of a whole (e.g. percentages) a pie chart is a better option.

Example Use Cases for Line Charts

1. Analyzing sales performance over months
2. Tracking revenue growth over time

Set-up Instructions

Below are the chart settings used to create the example Bubble chart shown above. 

1. Select which fields to include in the chart: 

2. Under the "Format" tab, select which field you want to plot on the x and y axes. In this example, we have the Quarter on the x-axis and the "Group by this field" checkbox is checked to group the records by Quarter. On the y-axis we have the count of the number of new deals that were won in that quarter. 

3. Under the "Customize" tab, you can enter a title for the chart, label the x and y axes, and in this example the Point Size was increased to 4:

4. If you want to change the colors of your chart, you can do so by navigating to the chart view, then clicking on the View Menu and selecting "Change Colors":

Related articles: 
Charts Overview