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From Data to Picta
Learn how data should be structured for different pictas.

Understanding Data Formats in DataPicta

With DataPicta you can upload data in CSV or TSV format (or just copy-paste from a spreadsheet) via the Data panel. Depending on the picta you choose, the data must have certain structures or formats to work correctly.

Bar, Line, and Pie Charts

Bar, line, and pie charts are among the most common pictas. The data should have at least one categorical column (for labels) and one or more numeric columns (for values). For example:

Month,Sales
January,45000
February,52000
March,48000
April,61000
May,58000
June,67000
July,72000
August,68000
September,55000
October,59000
November,63000
December,78000

This will result in:

Scatter Charts

Scatter charts require at least two numeric columns to plot points on the X and Y axes. Additional numeric columns can be used for point size or color encoding. Categorical columns can be used for grouping or faceting. For example:

Height,Weight,Gender
160,52,Female
165,58,Female
168,62,Female
172,68,Female
175,65,Female
177,78,Male
180,75,Male
182,85,Male
185,82,Male
188,90,Male

This will result in:

Radar Charts

Radar charts need multiple numeric columns representing different dimensions or variables. Each row represents an observation, and the chart will plot these observations across the various dimensions. For example, you might have data like this where you want to compare allocated budget versus the actual spending across different departments:

Sales,Administration,Information Technology,Customer Support,Development,Marketing
4200,3000,20000,35000,50000,18000
5000,14000,28000,26000,42000,21000

This will result in:

Tree Charts

Tree charts require hierarchical data structures. The data should be organized in a way that reflects parent-child relationships. For example, an oversimplified biological taxonomy could be represented like this:

level0,level1,level2,level3
Life,Animal,Mammal,Dog
Life,Animal,Mammal,Cat
Life,Animal,Bird,Eagle
Life,Animal,Bird,Parrot
Life,Plant,Tree,Oak
Life,Plant,Tree,Pine
Life,Plant,Flower,Rose
Life,Plant,Flower,Tulip

This will result in:

Please note that it is not needed to have all levels filled for each row, missing levels will simply not be shown in the tree chart. But be aware that the amount of commas per row must be equal. For example:

level0,level1,level2,level3
Life,Animal,Mammal,Dog
Life,Animal,Mammal,Cat
Life,Animal,Bird,
Life,Plant,Tree,
Life,Plant,Flower,
Life,Fungus,,

This will result in:

Treemap and Sunburst Charts

Just like tree charts, treemap and sunburst charts require hierarchical data structures. But treemap and sunburst also show numeric values for each node in the hierarchy, which determines the size of each segment in the chart. For example, if you have data like this:

Population,Continent,Country,City
3850000,Europe,Germany,Berlin
1900000,Europe,Germany,Hamburg
2150000,Europe,France,Paris
21900000,Asia,China,Beijing
33800000,Asia,India,Delhi
8500000,North America,USA,New York City
3900000,North America,USA,Los Angeles

You can create this treemap chart:

And this sunburst chart:

Candlestick Charts

Candlestick charts are popular in financial data visualization. They require specific columns to represent the open, high, low, and close values for each time period. The data should include a date or time column along with these four numeric columns. For example:

Date,Open,Close,High,Low
2017-10-24,20,34,10,38
2017-10-25,40,35,20,50
2017-10-26,31,38,33,48
2017-10-27,38,15,5,42

This will result in:

Heatmap Charts

Heatmap charts need a matrix-like structure where one axis represents categories and the other axis represents another set of categories or time intervals. The values in the matrix represent the intensity or frequency of occurrences. For example:

Hour,Day,Traffic
08:00,Monday,245
09:00,Monday,320
10:00,Monday,180
08:00,Tuesday,230
09:00,Tuesday,310
10:00,Tuesday,165
08:00,Wednesday,260
09:00,Wednesday,340
10:00,Wednesday,190

This will result in:

Sankey Diagrams

Sankey diagrams require data that represents flows between different nodes. The data should include source and target columns as text along with a numeric value column representing the magnitude of the flow. For example:

Source,Target,Value
Solar,Battery,350
Wind,Battery,280
Grid,Household,450
Battery,Household,320
Battery,Electric Car,180
Household,Heat Pump,220
Household,Appliances,380

This will result in:

Funnel Charts

Funnel charts need data that represents stages in a process along with corresponding values. The data should include a value column and a stage column. For example:

Value,Stage
800,Awareness
600,Interest
400,Consideration
200,Purchase

This will result in:

Gauge Charts

Gauge charts require a single numeric value and an optional text value. For example:

Speed,Unit
75,km/h

This will result in:

Stream Graphs

Stream graphs (a.k.a. ThemeRiver charts) require a dataset where the first column is a date, the second column is a value and the third column is a category. For example:

Date,Value,Category
2024-01-01,1200,Desktop
2024-02-01,1350,Desktop
2024-03-01,1100,Desktop
2024-04-01,1250,Desktop
2024-01-01,800,Mobile
2024-02-01,950,Mobile
2024-03-01,1150,Mobile
2024-04-01,1300,Mobile
2024-01-01,400,Tablet
2024-02-01,380,Tablet
2024-03-01,420,Tablet
2024-04-01,450,Tablet

This will result in:

This chart has a larger dataset then the example above, but the structure is the same.