How to Create a Step Line Chart

What is a Step Line Chart

Step Line charts split the straight segment between two points into a horizontal segment followed by a vertical segment, as in the stairs.

Step Line charts have properties just like the other types of line charts: can be single and multi-series, grouped or split when more then one series, single or multi-color, with a dash style, broken on missing points, with an alternative 3D view.

Steps to Create a Step 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 Step Line.
5. Multi-series charts can be split into multiple separate single-series charts.

Step 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. Step Lines Chart is a specific Step Line demo query.

Or build your Step Line chart from scratch, as shown here. Most simple Step 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 Step Line Chart

1. Make your step 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. Click on some legend items to hide segments within that Category.
7. You may change a line drawing style to straight, spline, step or jump line.

Conclusion

• Creating Step 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 Step 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.