v1.0.0
First release: find the right chart for your data by answering a few questions
- Chart Compass picks a chart with you: paste your data, say what the chart should show, answer two or three questions, and see the charts that fit.
- Paste a table from Excel or Google Sheets, open a CSV, or start from one of twelve samples; it finds the dates, categories and numbers by itself.
- Eleven goals, from comparing and change over time to part of a whole and flow, with the ones your data can answer marked; all three steps fit on one screen. Paired questions never hold the same column: Actual and Target, and Across (X) and Up (Y), swap when you pick the other one's column.
- The best fit and the good alternatives are drawn with your own numbers, each saying why it fits and which field goes where; on a phone they are drawn at the width they get, so their labels stay readable.
- Any of the 50 charts can be the answer: it spots the data each one needs, such as two periods per item for a slope chart, daily dates for a calendar heatmap, start and end dates for a Gantt chart, or from and to columns for a Sankey or network.
- Every pick names the chart in Power BI, Tableau and Excel, and the charts to skip for your data are listed apart, with why.
- The chart map lays out 50 charts in eleven lanes, filtered by what you want to say, with a search that finds a chart by its name or its Power BI name; open one to see it drawn large, how to read it, a tip, the data it needs and similar charts.
- Free, in your browser at /data/chart-compass/app/; your data never leaves the page. Your data, goal and answers are kept in this browser for your next visit, and Paste your own clears them.