# Mixed Charts
URL: https://docs.valsight.ai/mixed-charts/
Description: A mixed chart lets you show each data series differently, so bars and lines can sit in the same chart.
A mixed chart shows different data series in different ways within the same chart. Most of your data can be stacked bars while one data series runs across them as a line, which is the usual way to show a benchmark next to a breakdown.

## What it is

When you add a mixed chart, everything in it starts out as a bar. Nothing is set up for you beyond that. You then pick individual data series and change how each one is shown, choosing between **Line**, **Bar**, **Area** and **Spline**.

How a data series is shown also decides whether it stacks, and **Line** is the exception: a line never stacks and always draws in front, whatever **Stacked** is set to. That is what makes the chart useful, because you can show one scenario as a single line and read it against another scenario's stacked breakdown behind it. The table under **Configuration** has the rule for each of the four options.

![Revenue mixed chart: simulation and delta to target stacked as bars per year, with the target drawn across them as a red line](./images/mixed-chart.png)

## When to use it

* You want a total and its breakdown in one picture, rather than two charts side by side.
* You want to compare two scenarios where one acts as the benchmark and the other is broken down into its parts.
* You want to show a figure that is measured differently, such as a target or a rate, next to the amounts it relates to.

Use a **column chart** or a **stacked column chart** instead if every data series should look the same. The mixed chart only earns its place when at least one data series needs to stand apart from the others.

## Configuration

### Change how a data series is shown

**Show as** is not in the chart editor itself. It sits one level down, inside the **Data Series** dialog:

1. Select the chart. The chart editor opens on the right.
2. Scroll to the **Formatting** section and click **Data Series**. The **Style Data Series and X-Axis** dialog opens.
3. Stay on the **Data Series** tab and tick the data series you want to change in the list on the left. You can tick several at once.
4. Under **Show as**, choose **Line**, **Bar**, **Area** or **Spline**.
5. Click **Confirm**.

![The Show as options in the Data Series dialog, with one of three data series ticked in the list on the left](./images/data-series-dialog.png)

| Option     | What you get                                                                                                                                                            |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Line**   | A straight line between the values. Never stacks, whatever **Stacked** is set to, and is drawn in front of everything else.                                             |
| **Bar**    | A vertical bar. Stacks together with the other bars.                                                                                                                    |
| **Area**   | A filled shape under the line of values. Stacks together with the other areas, separately from the bars.                                                                |
| **Spline** | A curved line between the values, for a smoother shape than **Line**. Also drawn in front, but unlike **Line** it stacks with the other splines when **Stacked** is on. |

Colors and value labels are set in the same dialog, per data series. See [Styling Data Series, Columns and Rows](/styling-data-series-columns-and-rows/).

### Stack the bars

The **Stacked** checkbox sits next to the chart type buttons in the chart editor. Switch it on to stack the bars on top of each other, and off to place them next to each other. To label the total of each stack, see [Stacking and Stack Totals](/stacking-and-stack-totals/).

## Good to know

* **Setting several data series to bars does not stack them.** Stacking is the separate **Stacked** checkbox, and without it the bars sit side by side.
* **You cannot find Show as:** it is inside the **Data Series** dialog, not in the chart editor itself, and only on the **Data Series** tab. If the **X-Axis** tab is open you will not see it.
* **A figure measured differently needs its own axis.** A rate or a target read against the same axis as the amounts around it will look flat or swamp them. Put it on a second axis: see [Axis Scales and Decimals](/axis-scales-and-decimals/).
* **Spline is not a smoother Line.** Both draw in front, but splines stack with each other, where a line never stacks. For a benchmark that has to stay out of the stack, use **Line**.

## Related

* [Compare a Total with a Breakdown](/configure-flexible-scenario-comparisons-in-a-single-chart/): the step-by-step version of the benchmark-line-over-stacked-bars layout, including how to set up the axes for it.
* [Axis Scales and Decimals](/axis-scales-and-decimals/): give a data series its own axis when its unit differs.
* [Chart Types](/chart-types/): the other chart types you can choose from.