Line, Spline, Area and Step Charts

Line, spline, area, and step charts visualize trends and changes over time or across ordered categories. These charts are ideal for analyzing patterns, comparing data series, or highlighting cumulative values in business analytics.

Use these chart types to show progress, fluctuations, or distributions, and gain insights into seasonal patterns, growth rates, or cumulative impacts.

Example use cases

example

• Revenue trends: Track monthly, quarterly, or yearly revenue to identify growth patterns or seasonal impacts.
• Website analytics: Visualize daily or weekly user sessions and compare across different marketing channels.

Line and Spline types

	Chart	Description
	Line	Connects data points with straight lines. Ideal for showing trends over time.
	Stacked Line	Stacks series to highlight cumulative trends.
	Stacked Line 100%	Stacks series to 100% at each point to compare proportions.
	Spline	Uses smooth curves instead of straight lines for a refined trend view.
	Stacked Spline	Stacks smooth curves to show cumulative totals with less angularity.
	Stacked Spline 100%	Combines smooth curves and 100% stacking to compare proportions.

Area and Spline Area types

	Chart	Description
	Area	Fills the space below the line to emphasize volume and trends.
	Stacked Area	Stacks filled areas to show total and individual contributions.
	Stacked Area 100%	Stacks to 100% to highlight proportional relationships.
	Spline Area	Combines smooth curves with filled areas to show trends and magnitude.
	Stacked Spline Area	Stacks smooth, filled curves to show cumulative values.
	Stacked Spline Area 100%	Stacks filled spline areas to show proportional contributions.

Step Line and Step Area types

	Chart	Description
	Step Line	Connects points with horizontal and vertical lines to show changes at intervals.
	Stacked Step Line	Stacks step lines to show cumulative changes.
	Stacked Step Line 100%	Stacks to 100% to show proportional changes at each interval.
	Step Area	Fills the space below a step line to show volume and step-based changes.
	Stacked Step Area	Fills and stacks step areas to show totals and contributions.
	Stacked Step Area 100%	Shows proportional values using stacked step areas.

Create a line, area, spline or step chart

1. Select Data Models and Views from the navigation panel.
2. Right-click the data model you want to use and select New View from the context menu.
3. In the Select a View dialog, choose a view chart type from the Line category.
4. Enter a Name for the view. To assign names in other languages, select the translation icon next to the text box.
5. Select the fields you want to include for each section.
6. (Optional) Toggle Sample Mode to preview the data using a sample dataset.
7. Click Confirm. The new view opens with your initial settings.
8. Customize the view by using the view organizer, content area, and Toolbar.
9. In the Toolbar panel, select Save or Save As to save your changes.

Line, area, spline or step settings

Setting	Description
Name	Enter a descriptive name for the worksheet. Select the translation icon to add labels for different languages—ideal for multilingual environments.
Sample Mode	Enable to open the worksheet in sample mode.
Define the Levels to be Used in Drill Down	Select which fields support drill-down functionality in the chart.
Data point position values come from	Specify the field that defines the position of data points along the X-axis, such as time periods, categories, or other ordered values.
Show pivot (group of columns) for each	Select dimensions to include in the Pivots section of the view organizer. These values pivot the worksheet layout, letting you compare data across different dimensions. Selecting a field for Pivots is not required to create a worksheet.