Charts

Every view can chart its entries: group them by one column, measure another, and split the result by a third. This topic covers showing a view’s chart, the kinds of chart, each chart setting, and pinning a chart to your dashboard.

Showing a chart

In a view’s toolbar, choose Show Chart (see Views). The chart appears above the view’s table; choose Hide Chart to put it away. To give the chart the whole space, choose Show Only the Chart, and Show the Table Too to bring the table back.

The first time you chart a view, Grindstone starts with a Column chart grouped by the view’s first column that doesn’t hold numbers or durations. It measures the sum of the first column holding durations, or else numbers, and counts the entries if there’s neither. A line beside the chart’s kind summarizes what it shows, such as “Sum of Time by Client, split by Person.”

Grindstone remembers the chart you set up for each view, so it’s there the next time you show it.

When the view has no entries to chart, the chart says “There is nothing to chart in this view yet.”

A chart charts the entries the view shows you, using the view’s columns. To chart something the view doesn’t have a column for, add one. See Views.

Kinds of chart

Choose the kind from the menu at the chart’s top left:

• Column, Bar, Line and Area plot each group along an axis. They can split and stack.
• Pie and Doughnut show each group as a slice in its own color.
• Radar puts each group on a spoke around a center.
• Calendar shades each day of a calendar by its number. It needs Group By to be a column of dates with Dates By set to Day; otherwise it says “A calendar needs a date to group by, grouped by day.”
• Sunburst shows groups as rings around a center, with each Then By column as the next ring out.
• Table lays out the numbers as a table, with a Total row and, when split, a Total column. A table chart has an Export CSV button. See Exporting.

Chart Settings

Choose Chart Settings at the chart’s top right to change what it shows. Changes take effect as you make them. Which settings appear depends on the kind of chart.

Grouping

Group By is the column whose values become the chart’s groups, such as one bar for each client. Entries with nothing in that column are grouped as “None”.

When the column holds dates, Dates By groups them by Day, Week, Month, Quarter or Year, or by Exact Time. When dates are grouped this way, a date range goes by when it starts.

Then By divides each group further by another column, such as each client by person. Choosing a column there offers another Then By beneath it, up to a limit. Choose Nothing to remove one. Calendar charts don’t use Then By.

Measuring

Measure is what each group’s number is: Count, Sum, Average, Median, Minimum or Maximum.

Of is the column measured. With Count, choose Entries to count the entries in each group, or a column to count the entries that have a value in it. The other measures need a column holding numbers, durations or date ranges; a date range is measured by its length. Durations are charted in hours.

Splitting and stacking

Split By divides each group’s number by another column’s values, drawn as separate series in their own colors, such as each client’s time split by person. Choose Nothing to stop splitting. Pie, Doughnut and Calendar charts don’t split.

Show At Most Splits limits how many splits are shown, keeping those with the largest values and folding the rest into one called “Other”. Choosing a Split By column sets a limit if there isn’t one; clear it to show them all.

For Column, Bar, Line and Area charts that are split, turn on Stack the splits to stack each group’s splits on one another.

Order and limits

Order is Natural or Largest First.

Show At Most limits how many groups are shown, keeping those with the largest values and folding the rest into “Other”. Clear it to show them all. Choosing Pie, Doughnut or Sunburst sets a limit if there isn’t one, which you can change.

Lines, for Line and Area charts, draws the lines Straight, Smooth or Stepped.

Calendar charts don’t use Order or Show At Most.

Entries left out

If a column the chart uses can’t be worked out for some entries, the chart leaves those entries out and says how many beside its summary, such as “3 entries left out.” Point at it for the reason: a column the chart uses couldn’t be worked out for those entries. If that’s unexpected, check that column’s formula. See Formulas.

When a column is gone

A chart remembers its columns even if you rename or reorder them. If a column it uses is deleted, the chart says which setting needs a new column, such as “The column this chart groups by is gone. Choose another in the chart’s settings.”

Pin to Dashboard

Choose Pin to Dashboard at the chart’s top right to put the chart, as it’s set up now, on your dashboard. Changing the view’s chart afterward doesn’t change the pinned one, so you can pin several charts of the same view. See The Dashboard.