Pie and donut charts

1. Pie and donut charts

In this video, we'll focus on pie and donut charts.

2. Pie and donut charts

Pie and donut charts are represented as circles, divided into sections based on a given data column. Each section is typically a different color, and its size corresponds to its proportion of a column's total value.

3. Pie and donut charts

A sweet spot for pie charts are those with 2 to 6 sections - any more than six and the charts can become messy to interpret. The difference between a pie and a donut? Simply the fact that the donut has a hollow space in the center, which in Sigma can be populated with a numeric data point.

4. DEMO

We could imagine that Oakmark Bank needs to see at a glance what share of call center employees belong to each team. In a case like this where we're representing proportions of a whole along only one dimension - team, a pie or donut chart is a great fit.

5. DEMO

Instead of an X and Y axis section, pie charts require a Color and Value field. Color corresponds to the column which will determine the color of each slice of the chart, and Value represents the numeric counts or sums that determine the size of the slices.

6. DEMO

So for example, if we need a pie chart displaying call center agent headcount by team, we'd place the [Agent Team] field in the Color menu and configure a count of [Agent Id] on the Value menu.

7. DEMO

Just like other chart types, you can customize a pie chart's color scheme using a pre-configured palette, or by setting individual colors in the Custom menu.

8. DEMO

Labels can be displayed in several ways on pie and donut charts. Navigating to the Format tab and then the Data Labels menu, we can turn data labels on, and configure them to display with raw numbers, percentages of the whole, the name of the slice's category, or any combination of the three.

9. DEMO

You may also move the labels off of the pie chart and onto the legend by changing the Label display drop-down.

10. DEMO

Donut charts are configured much the same, with one key addition. Changing to a Donut chart gives us the option to define a value to place in the center of the donut; often, this is the sum total of the donut slices.

11. DEMO

For this example, adding a count of [Agent Id] to the donut hole allows us to easily display the total agents making up the three teams.

12. Let's practice!

Now let’s try some quick exercises to get comfortable configuring pie and donut charts in Sigma.

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