Stacked Bar Chart

[ExcelMonkey]

I have a stacked bar chart. All the values in the chart are positiv
except for one of them. When you add up the individual stacks i
amounts to 80. But this includes the one negative stack of -5. When
graph the stacked bar chart it shows a total positve value of 85 with
stack of -5 sitting below the YU axis. As the total is really 80, th
85 looks wrong of first glance. However it makes sense when you spen
some time thinking about it.

How do you build the stacked bar chart so that the total says 80. Am
forced to bury the -5 in a positive stack value that is greater than
so that the stacked bar chart does not incoporate any negative value
into it?

Thank-yo

 

[Jon Peltier]

This is why Mr. Waterfall invented his particular chart. The items are
drawn to show how they affect a cumulative total. All of yours move the
total upwards except the negative one which moves it down. Unfortunately
this requires two or more sets of stacked bars. The way I would probably
make the chart is to stack all the positive numbers in the first
position (category "Positive"), then the negative next to it (category
"Negative"), floating on an invisible bar, so the floating piece
stretches from 80 to 85. Finally in a third position (category "Total")
I'd put a single bar from 0 to 80.

I have a couple Waterfall Chart examples on my web site:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/Waterfall.html
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/Waterfall2.html

I believe you'll find other examples on Andy Pope's
(http://andypope.info), Tushar Mehta's (http://tushar-mehta.com), and Ed
Ferrero's (http://edferrero.m6.net/) web sites.

- Jon