How to Create a Polar Chart

Table of Contents

What is a Polar Chart

Polar charts offer an alternative circular view to typical scatter, line, and area Cartesian charts on the XY orthogonal plot. For vertical columns and horizontal bars, see the Radial columns and bars.

Possible combinations of Cartesian chart types on a circular polar plot:

  1. Single-Series Charts – with single Scatter, Line or Area charts.
  2. Single-Series Bubble Charts – with one single Scatter and one Size.
  3. Grouped Multi-Series Charts – with multiple single-series charts of the same type.
  4. Mixed Multi-Series Charts – with multiple single-series charts of the same type.
  5. Multiple Split Charts – with one separate small chart for each single-series chart type.

Steps to Create a Polar 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 eventually some numeric columns with the Polar ChartsPolar Scatter chart.
  3. For Polar Bubble charts, add a numeric Size after any Polar Scatter selection.
  4. Select eventually some numeric columns with the Polar ChartsPolar Line chart.
  5. Select eventually some numeric columns with the Polar ChartsPolar Area chart.
  6. Select eventually a Label, for legend items and labels around the polar area.
  7. Check the toolbar button and make sure you show a Polar, and not a Radar, plot.
  8. Split it eventually into multiple separate single-series Polar charts.

Mixed Polar Chart Demo Query

This is a great alternative to learn about and play with this type of chart, if you don’t want to create anything from scratch.

Look for this ready-to-use generated query under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts > Circular Charts folder. Click on the “add demo queries” command link, if the Polar Chart demo query is not already there.

Mixed Polar Chart

Other polar demo charts:

  • MultiColor Polar Bubble Chart – with one Polar Bubble chart with multiple colors.
  • Grouped Polar Bubble Chart – with two Polar Bubble charts.

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.

Multiple Polar Chart Demo Query

Under the Multiple Charts folder, you’ll find the Multiple Polar Chart demo query, which basically has a mixed Polar chart as the one previously displayed “split” into separate single-series Polar charts with one click of a toolbar button.

Click on the legend items to hide ans show any separate chart. Click again on the Multiple/Split toolbar button to combine back all charts into one single mixed Polar chart.

Multiple Polar Charts

Customize your Polar Chart

  1. Show data labels as lollipops, inside.
  2. Change the orientation of the axis labels.
  3. Change the default bubble chart marker with a star.
  4. Click on legend items to hide some single-series.
  5. You may switch from a Polar to a Radar (Spider Web) circular surface with one click.

Custom Polar Chart

Conclusion

  • Creating Polar charts in Data Xtractor or Visual Xtractor is fast and simple: declare one or more numeric columns as Polar Scatter/Line/Area, and one column as Label if you wish.
  • Add a Size after any Polar Scatter for a Polar Bubble chart.
  • Split the mixed Polar chart into separate Polar charts with the click of one button.
  • Show a Radar plot instead of Polar.
  • 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.