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When to use what type of visualization

You use different charts and tables to present the data in a quick, understandable and meaningful way.

Charts present relationships among many values efficiently, and provide you with a way to analyze data at a glance. The best choice of chart type depends on the purpose of the visualization. For instance, tables are useful when you need to view precise values, and when you want to compare individual values to each other.

Here is a list of purposes for visualizing data and the chart type recommended to achieve that purpose.

Purpose of visualization Recommended chart type
Compare data side by side Bar chart
Combine absolute and relative values Combo chart
Make selections to reduce data set Filter pane
Indicate ratio Gauge
Display a performance value KPI
Display trends over time Line chart
Display point and area data Map
Display ratio to total Pie chart
Create a cross table view of data and to summarize data Pivot table
Display correlation of measures Scatter plot
Display numbers and values Table
Display text, images, links, and measures Text & image
Display hierarchical data Treemap
Compare range and distribution for groups of numerical data. Box plot
  Distribution plot
Display distribution of numerical data over a continuous interval, or a certain time period. Histogram
Display how an initial value is affected by intermediate positive and negative values. Waterfall chart

What if no standard chart suits my purpose?

You can create custom visualization objects if none of the standard charts provided by Qlik Sense fits your requirement for visualizing your data.

See: Creating a visualization using a custom object

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