How to Create a Jump Line Chart

What is a Jump Line Chart

Jump Line charts show only horizontal segments. In each point, the line “jumps” leaving an empty space to the next horizontal line and so on.

Our Jump Line charts are always single-series and cannot be combined with other types of charts. This is you may have only one Jump Line chart selection on a chart, with an eventual Label, but nothing else.

It is however possible to add another Jump Line, but multiple split single-series Jump Line charts will be created instead.

As for the other types of lines, Jump Lines may be also multi-color, can change the dash style, show different markers, or appear in 3D.

Steps to Create a Jump Line Chart

Start Visual Xtractor or Data Xtractor. Connect to a database. Create or design a SQL query. Run the query and check the results.

1. Display and enable the Chart query builder.
2. Select one or more numeric columns with the Line Charts – Line chart.
3. Select eventually a Label, for legend items and X axis labels.
4. Select all line series from the toolbar and change their drawing style to Jump Line.

Jump Line Chart Demo Queries

Look for ready-to-use generated chart queries under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts folder. Click on the “add demo queries” command link, to make sure they’re all there. Specific Jump Line demo queries are Lollipop Jump Line Chart and Multiple Jump Line Chart.

Or build your Jump Line chart from scratch, as shown here. Most simple Jump Line chart has just one data column, with a horizontal axis automatically generated.

Generated demo queries must work for any database, with no restriction. They use constant values generated on-the-fly and your database SQL engine, but do not depend on data from your tables, and never alter your database in any way.

Customize your Jump Line Chart

1. Make your jump line chart multi-color, with a different color for each segment.
2. Show data labels as lollipops, inside some custom diamond markers.
3. Change the dash style to interrupted lines.
4. Add a data column as Label., and show staggered X axis labels.
5. Set another column as Category, to group multiple segments with the same color.
6. You may change a line drawing style to straight, spline, step or jump line.

Conclusion

• Creating Jump Line charts in Data Xtractor or Visual Xtractor is fast and trivial: select one or more numeric columns as Line, and one column as Label if you wish.
• Select series from the toolbar and change their drawing style to Jump Line.
• All builtin powerful features of these chart type are common to most other charts: filtering series through the legend items, interactivity, monochrome or grayscale colors, rich axis and data label selections etc.
• Switch to another builtin chart theme, or customize your own, for any possible color or other styles.