I want to create a visual chart which represents data by showing spheres of different sizes beside each other. So like a pie chart, but a number of different size circles instead, each representing a number illustrated by their size. Any idea if this can be done in Numbers?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
Yes, you need to have three columns of numerical data. One tells Numbers where to place the bubble on the x-axis, the second on the y-axis, and the third tells Numbers how big to make the bubble.
You can use the x and y values to change where your bubbles appear on the chart.
If you want to have a text label for each bubble you will need to add text boxes and position them manually.
A rough example (adapted quickly from the template):
SG
Yes, you need to have three columns of numerical data. One tells Numbers where to place the bubble on the x-axis, the second on the y-axis, and the third tells Numbers how big to make the bubble.
You can use the x and y values to change where your bubbles appear on the chart.
If you want to have a text label for each bubble you will need to add text boxes and position them manually.
A rough example (adapted quickly from the template):
SG
Spheres (3d) or circles (2d)? There is a 2-D bubble chart that is circles. With the proper choice of data it should be able to put different sized circles beside each other. Here is a quick example. I turned off a lot of the things that make a chart a chart.
Cartoonguy wrote:
Thanks for this tip, but for some reason, I am just getting a blank chart. Not sure why.
If you're having trouble getting your chart to work then it can help to study or just adapt an example that is already working.
Go to File > New in your menu and pick the 'Charting Basics' template.
Then go to the 'Bubble Chart' sheet.
SG
If you want them to be labeled automatically, you can turn them into separate series by putting their data in separate columns. This is only practical for small numbers of data points. The table grows fast. If your actual data is just the bubble size (one column of data), you could create a separate table to feed the chart. That table would have formulas to create the X and Y points for each bubble and would spread your size data across the table to the correct cells like it would need to be for the chart.
Hi David,
David wrote:
"The largest number was so large that it appeared as one large sphere and the smaller places were so small as to not be big enough to appear at all, so that's why I was only seeing one sphere."
If the population numbers span a huge range, you could convert the populations to LOG10. Then insert a Bubble Chart after selecting columns A, B and C for X, Y and Size.
Regards,
Ian
Good tip to use the template. Thanks. I can see that this example uses three columns. In my case, I have two columns: A list of cities and their population size and I want the bubbles to represent population size. I suspect it will not work that way, but I can't figure out how to make it work with the two columns I have because maybe it has to have three columns of data, as in the sample.
Hi Cartoonguy,
I do not understand your overall aim. What are you trying to show?
Do you want a Category graph with city names versus population? That is a 2 dimensional graph.
Do you want a Bubble graph? That is a version of a Scatter Plot with a third dimension (size) and requires three columns.
Please post a screen shot of your data table, so that we can see what you see.
Regards,
Ian.
Hi Ian,
I really just want to show 2D spheres which represent data by their size. So in the case of population of cities, New York would be a big sphere and say Kansas, would be a much smaller one, but the size would equate accurately to the population.
Sgill, above, indicates that it has to have three columns to work as what I want seems to not be directly achievable. It needs the X and Y and value, so that's what I have done, but I discovered a big flaw in my data. The largest number was so large that it appeared as one large sphere and the smaller places were so small as to not be big enough to appear at all, so that's why I was only seeing one sphere. Now I get it! It is a workaround, but it is achievable.
Thanks,
David
Thanks for this tip, but for some reason, I am just getting a blank chart. Not sure why.
Try doing it in a different document (or somewhere else that does not matter) using the sample data in my post.
How to make a sphere chart in Numbers
