Arrange data whenever possible

As we saw in the previous chapter, whenever the data in the chart does not have to follow a time-based or alphabetical sequence, arranging the data in ascending or descending order makes data analysis a lot easier.

As our aim was to find the highest selling store in Dec 2011, arranging the data in descending order was the obvious choice, as shown in the previous screenshot. Choosing the order follows naturally from the purpose of the chart.

Arranging data is not limited to column and bar charts only. It can be quite helpful in pie charts as well. Let’s say you had a pie chart showing the breakdown of revenue from different countries for 2011, as displayed in the following screenshot:

While it is easy to see that US brought in the most revenue in 2011, finding out the second and the third best countries does require a fair amount of looking around. This can be made much easier by simply arranging the data, as in the following screenshot: