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How to Create a Radar Chart

Table of Contents

What is a Radar (Spider Web) Chart

Radar charts offer an alternative circular view to typical scatter, line, and area Cartesian charts on the XY orthogonal plot. Unlike the Polar charts, their plot looks like a Spider Web (hence the alternative name).

Possible combinations of Cartesian chart types on a Radar 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 Radar 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 Charts – Polar Scatter chart.
  3. For Radar Bubble charts, add a numeric Size after any Polar Scatter selection.
  4. Select eventually some numeric columns with the Polar Charts – Polar Line chart.
  5. Select eventually some numeric columns with the Polar Charts – Polar Area chart.
  6. Select eventually a Label, for legend items and labels around the Radar area.
  7. Look for a toolbar button with a spider web to switch from a Polar to a Radar plot.
  8. Split it eventually into multiple separate single-series Radar charts.

Mixed Radar 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 Radar Chart demo query is not already there.

Mixed Radar Chart

Other Radar demo charts (where you may need to switch from Polar to Radar):

  • MultiColor Polar Bubble Chart – with one Radar Bubble chart with multiple colors.
  • Grouped Polar Bubble Chart – with two Radar 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 Radar Chart Demo Query

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

Multiple Radar Chart

Customize your Radar 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 spider web Radar to a circular Polar surface with one click.

Custom Radar Chart

Conclusion

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