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I'm trying to create a column chart in Numbers where each column is also stacked. For example, consider the following data.

Sample Data

Here we have numbers for the total sample and numbers for how that total is actually the average of two segments. I've already graphed a stacked column chart of the total sample, which looks something like this:

Total Sample

Now I'm trying to create a chart that shows the differences in the segments while also displaying the stacks for each individual segment. For the above data, it might look something like this:

enter image description here

I've successfully created the column charts in Numbers that show the total sample stacked or that show the segments, but unstacked. I'm trying to create one that shows the segments comparison with the stacked totals.

Is this possible in Numbers? Excel? Or should I just do it manually (which will really suck, because eventually I'm going to have dozens of these) in OmniGraffle?

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  • Given two pairs of answers (9, 1), (7, 2). The average of these is (8, 1.5) so the single column version would have a lower portion that rises to 8 and an upper portion 1.5 higher than that. The comparison version would have two columns, a lower portion of 9 with an extension 1 above that and the other with a lower portion of 7 with an extension of 2 above. Does that help?
    – Chuck
    Aug 5, 2015 at 1:19

1 Answer 1

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EDIT (Complete revision):

Based on your data, the only way to accomplish this without redesigning the table is to create separate charts for each Segment shown. As each segment has 4 pieces of data, this is the only way to do this. (There may be someone out there who is a charting expert that could do much better, I'm sure)

First, as you have done is to make a Total chart:

Totals

Then crate separate charts, positioned together for the segments:

Segment Charts

The charts can be edited for looks and data views in the Inspector but that is beyond the scope of the question.

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  • Not quite. It's a single data set, one version combined, the other broken into segments, both with stacked columns. If your "No gaps" chart had the blue and green columns each having additional stacks above them, that's what I'm trying to achieve. Picture my dashed line blocks being added to every column in the "No gaps" version. So each pair of columns actually includes four numbers, each column includes two.
    – Chuck
    Aug 5, 2015 at 1:31
  • Maybe that's what I'm looking for, but I don't think so. I'm going to put together some more sample data and build it custom with OmniGraffle. Then I'll edit my question to better reflect what I'm looking for. Thanks for the attempts.
    – Chuck
    Aug 5, 2015 at 1:46
  • "... without redesigning the table...", do you see some simpler way to do this with the same data in a table that has a different structure? I only showed data for two questions, but the current project has 14 and the next one 19, so if there's a better setup that will allow a more straightforward method of creating this chart, I'm all for it.
    – Chuck
    Aug 5, 2015 at 6:37
  • Well, it kind of sucked how much work it required, but I used the basics of your description to create 28 charts, each with a single stacked column. 28 were required so that I could actually make the pairs of columns have different colors. The best news about the whole thing is that once the first one was built, the second was only duplication and redirecting the data points. There must be a better way, but brute force worked in the end.
    – Chuck
    Aug 6, 2015 at 9:08
  • I wish there were a better solution too. If you come up with an improvement, please post as an answer. Cheers
    – bjbk
    Aug 6, 2015 at 10:44

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