---
title: "Time Series Area Chart"
slug: "area-chart"
updated: 2023-03-14T03:00:43Z
published: 2023-03-14T03:00:43Z
canonical: "docs.preset.io/area-chart"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.preset.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Area Chart

The Area Chart visualization type is best used for understanding how ratios, proportions, or percentages change over a dimension (e.g., time). Here are some examples of different area charts:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/ts_charts.png)

### Reference Content

If you're new to visualizing data in Preset, we recommend the following reference articles:

- [Creating a Chart](https://portal.document360.io/v1/docs/creating-a-chart): A walkthrough of the overall process of chart selection and creation.
- [Using Preset Chart Builder](https://portal.document360.io/v1/docs/using-preset-explore): How to work with the Chart Builder page, the primary interface used when creating a chart.

## **Creating an Area Chart**

Preset currently has a few options for area charts in the visualization picker:

- Area Chart
- Area Chart (legacy)

We strongly recommend using the **Area Char****t** visualization type, as it’s newer and supports more features.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Visualization%20Picker.png)

To create an Area Chart, you need to define the following values:

- the column you want as the X-axis
- the metric(s) you want to visualize on the Y-axis
- the column(s) you want the metric(s) to be grouped / categorized by

These are all defined in the **Data** tab within Chart Builder.

**Simple Area Chart (no dimensions)**

Below is a very simple area chart that shows a single metric varying over time.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-24%20at%2011.19.32%20AM.png)

Here's an explanation of the selections we made in the chart builder interface to generate this chart.

| ![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Revised%20x-axis(3).png) | **X-axis** - X-axis: Select the column (e.g., Time, Categories) to be visualized. - Time Grain: Define the granularity of the X-axis (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, etc.). The field will appear for temporal dimensions only. |
| --- | --- |
| ![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/%20Metrics(2).png) | **Metric(s) on Y-axis** - Drag or select the Metric(s) to be visualized on the Y-axis |

Here's the SQL query that Preset generated:

```plsql
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('DAY', started_at) AS "started_at",
       count(DISTINCT ride_id) AS "COUNT_DISTINCT(ride_id)"
FROM dbt_smukherjee.citibike_trips
WHERE started_at >= '2022-04-01 00:00:00.000000'
  AND started_at < '2022-05-01 00:00:00.000000'
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('DAY', started_at)
ORDER BY "COUNT_DISTINCT(ride_id)" DESC
LIMIT 10000
```

This hopefully helps you understand the mapping from the chart builder options above to the final generated SQL query.

**Area Chart (with dimensions)**

Below is a similar chart to the one above but with a dimension (rider type) added.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-24%20at%2011.46.06%20AM.png)

To generate this chart, we re-used the same selections from the first chart but made the following, additional selections:

| ![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Metrics%20v1%201.png) | **Dimensions** - Select any columns you want to slice/separate the X series objects by. The unique values for those columns will be used to group together values and generate each X series object. |
| --- | --- |
| ![](https://cdn.document360.io/4749ddf8-aa05-4f3f-80e1-07a5d2d0f137/Images/Documentation/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-24%20at%2011.56.42%20AM.png) | **Customization Options** - **Series Style**: by default, a line is used to connect the data points - **Area Chart Opacity**: increase or decrease to modify how clear the area underneath the line is - **Show Value:** checkbox that enables the display of underlying numeric values if ticked - **Stacked Style:** stack style is ideal when you have a few, non-overlapping groups in your data. The series lines will be "stacked" / separated from each other by the dimensions you selected. - **Only Total:** if selected, only total numeric values are displayed on the topmost line. If unselected, values are shown for each X-series object. - **Extra Controls**: if selected, enables a quick switcher of the stacking type to end-users - **Marker**: if selected, individual data points are shown - **Marker Size**: slider to help you select the size of the markers - **Show Legend**: if selected, the legend containing each dimension and color is shown |

Here's the SQL query that Preset generated:

```plsql
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('DAY', started_at) AS "started_at",
       member_casual AS "member_casual",
       count(DISTINCT ride_id) AS "COUNT_DISTINCT(ride_id)"
FROM dbt_smukherjee.citibike_trips
WHERE started_at >= '2022-04-01 00:00:00.000000'
  AND started_at < '2022-05-01 00:00:00.000000'
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('DAY', started_at),
         member_casual
ORDER BY "COUNT_DISTINCT(ride_id)" DESC
LIMIT 10000
```

## Advanced Analytics

As with most visualizations in Preset, the Area Chart supports **Advanced Analytics** features like:

- [Rolling Window and Rolling Function](https://docs.preset.io/v1/docs/rolling-window)
- [Time Shift and Resampling](https://docs.preset.io/v1/docs/time-comparison)