What type of chart is this and how can I make one?

[Jaymond Flurrie]

My customer gave me an example chart and wants me to create similar charts automatically, so I'm going to use VBA to make such charts. The problem is that I have no idea what is the name of this chart type (I would guess it's some kind of radar chart) and more importantly, how do I access such a chart in Excel and even further, what's the VBA name of this chart type. I'm using either Excel 2007 or 2010.

So here's the picture I took from PDF he gave to me as an example:

All four directions represents one value - the further the point is from the center, the bigger the value is.

 

[kpark91]

It IS a radar chart but I don't think it will look exactly alike just from my memory.


To access it, go to Insert Tab, Charts > Other Charts and it should be there at the most bottom row.

 

[Jaymond Flurrie]

It IS a radar chart but I don't think it will look exactly alike just from my memory.


To access it, go to Insert Tab, Charts > Other Charts and it should be there at the most bottom row.

Found it, thanks! The problem was that those "example thumbnail pictures" had five of those "dimensions" so that confused me quite a bit. I also have this Charts And Graphs book by Bill Jelen, but with quick glance it didn't have a single picture that looked like what I was looking for.

 

[kpark91]

Awesome. Thanks for the feedback and the book's name :P
Maybe I'll take a look at it too one day./

 

[Jaymond Flurrie]

Awesome. Thanks for the feedback and the book's name :P
Maybe I'll take a look at it too one day./

The book looks so far quite good, but I can't say whether or not I recommend it. I mean, I haven't read it yet, so I can't say much about it. The good thing is that it is for Excel 2010, unlike many other books today, and it has some very interesting things like "know when charts are lying" and "using charts as maps". Judging by pictures there, there's some very nice masterpiece charts and instructions how to make those. So far there hasn't been a lot I haven't liked, but if you are into VSTO programming, this book isn't necessarily for you - unless you're fluent with translating VBA code into VSTO code. The book wasn't very expensive either, a bit over 25 USD from Amazon.com.

I try to read books from a lot of different authors to be able to compare them and I would recommend that for others too.

[/off-topic]

 

[kpark91]

Thanks for the explanation.
Since the price doesn't seem to be too bad, I think it's worth having a look at the bookstore just to see what's up.
I am trying to go into VSTO programming as I know it will become useful in the near future. Although I can translate fluently between VBA and VSTO with some help from internet of course :P

 

[Jon Peltier]

For what it's worth, this kind of chart is not as clearly interpreted as you might think. There are gridlines to help, but the fact that the "axes" (radial lines) go off in divergent directions make it very hard to compare values along different radii.

A more suitable approach is to make a parallel coordinates chart, which is a fancy name for a line chart.

I wrote a relevant tutorial in Sample Parallel Coordinate Chart, I wrote a critique of radar charts in Radar Charts are Ineffective, and I compared radar charts to parallel coordinates in Composite Baseball Player Evaluation.