This page describes the options for editing column charts in the visualization menu. Click the gear in the upper right corner of the Visualization bar to format your visualization. Show
Options listed below may be grayed out or hidden in situations where they conflict with other settings that you have chosen. Series PositioningYou can specify how series are clustered visually on a chart. Not all of the options below apply to all chart types:
Grid LayoutYou can separate, or trellis, a chart into several smaller charts, each representing a single row or pivot from the results table. You can separate a chart into a maximum of 12 smaller charts. If you have more than 12 rows or pivots, limit your data by using the Row Limit, Column Limit, or Limit Displayed Rows options. When you select By Pivot or By Row from the drop-down menu, the Number of Charts per Row option appears. You can input a number between 1 and 12. If you do not input a number, Looker arranges the charts as evenly as possible. When used with the new dashboard experience, grid layout becomes responsive to the dashboard tile size and shape, as long as Number of Charts per Row is not set. Show Percent of PreviousYou can toggle the appearance of percent change arrows across the chart. For each series, these arrows display the percent of the previous value from left to right. This option is only available with Series Positioning Grouped and Scale Type Ordinal. You can drag and drop the percent change arrows to reposition them while viewing the visualization. Sort StacksYou can order each slice of a stacked or stacked percentage chart by the size of each slice:
Sort Stacks is only available with Series Positioning set to Stacked or Stacked Percentage. Inner SpacingYou can set the spacing between columns within a group. This is available for charts that have Series Positioning Grouped. This parameter accepts values between 0 and 1. Enter 0 for minimum spacing between columns within a group. Enter 1 for maximum spacing. SpacingYou can set the spacing between column groups. This parameter accepts values between 0 and 1. Enter 0 for minimum spacing between columns within a group. Enter 1 for maximum spacing. Hide LegendYou can toggle the appearance of the series legend on a chart. This is only available when there is more than one series (except in the case of a pie chart). Legend AlignYou can specify whether the series legend appears to the left, center, or right of the chart. This is only available when Hide Legend is off and when there is more than one series. Limit Displayed RowsYou can show or hide rows in a visualization, based on their position in the results. For example, if your visualization displays a 7-day rolling average, you may want to hide the first 6 rows. Click Limit Displayed Rows to enable or disable this feature. When enabled, you can specify the following options:
In the Data section below your visualization, excluded rows show in a darker color and are marked with a symbol to the left of the row number: This option is dependent on the row order. Changing the query's sort order or adding a row limit can change the rows that are shown or hidden in the visualization. The series menu controls how your chart shows each data series. ColorsYou can define the color palette for a chart in the Colors section. CollectionA collection lets you create themed visualizations and dashboards that look good together. All of Looker's built-in color collections appear on the Color collections documentation page. Your Looker admin may also create a custom color collection for your organization. You can choose a color collection from the Collection drop-down menu. The Palette section will update with a palette from your chosen color collection. PaletteOnce you've selected a color collection, you can choose a different palette from the collection, or customize your palette, by clicking the color palette itself. This opens the palette picker and displays all of the palettes from the collection. Colors are assigned to each series in order. For a categorical palette, the first color in the palette is assigned to the first series, and so on. For a sequential or diverging palette, the color at the left end of the palette is assigned to the first series and the colors for each remaining series move to the right on the palette. If your query returns more data series than colors listed, the colors repeat from the beginning of the palette, first as a lighter version of each color, then as a darker version of each color. Creating a custom color paletteTo create a custom color palette, select the Custom tab on the palette picker. You can edit your palette in several ways:
To change a selected color, or edit all colors at once, input hex strings, such as To bring up a color picker to select a color, click the color wheel to the right of the color value box. The corresponding hex value for that color appears in the color value box: If you click EDIT ALL, the color value box populates with the hex codes of the color palette you've chosen or customized. Copying and pasting this list is the best way to copy custom color palettes from one chart to another. Reverse colorsYou can reverse the colors used on a palette. For a categorical palette, this applies the last color in the palette to the first series, the second-to-last color in the palette to the second series, and so on. For a sequential or diverging palette, this applies the color at the right end of the palette to the first series and move left on the palette for the remaining series. Show Full Field NameYou can determine whether to show the view name along with the
field name for each axis title and series name. When Show Full Field Name is turned off, generally only the field name shows; however, measures of type CustomizationsYou can customize each series in the chart in several ways:
Value LabelsYou can toggle the appearance of value labels for each data point on a chart. Label Null ColumnsYou can toggle the appearance of labels for null data points. Totals LabelsYou can toggle the appearance of totals for each stacked group of data points on a chart. Totals Labels is only available with Series Positioning Stacked. Show Silhouette of Disabled SeriesYou can toggle a lightly shaded representation of a disabled series in a stacked chart. Click on a series name in the bottom legend of the visualization to disable or enable the series in the visualization. Show Silhouette of Disabled Series is only available with Series Positioning Stacked. Totals ColorYou can define the color of the totals labels. Click on the color swatch to scroll through color palettes or select a custom color for the totals labels. Totals Color is only available when Series Positioning is set to Stacked. Value ColorsYou can define the colors of the value labels. This field takes a comma-separated list of one or more color values. The color values can be formatted as RGB hex strings, such as If set to multiple colors, colors are assigned to each series in order. The first series in the underlying table is assigned the first color, and so on. If the query returns more data series than colors listed, Looker will assign the series color to the value label after it runs out of your custom colors. If no color values are provided, Looker assigns the series color to the value label. Font SizeYou can set the font size of value labels using any valid CSS size. For example, you can specify a number of pixels, such as Value RotationYou can set the rotation of the value labels. This parameter accepts values between -360 and 360, denoting the number of degrees to rotate the labels. Value Rotation is only available with Series Positioning Grouped or Overlay. Totals RotationYou can set the rotation of the totals labels. This parameter accepts values between -360 and 360, denoting the number of degrees to rotate the labels. Totals Rotation is only available with Series Positioning Stacked. Value FormatYou can specify the format of the value, independent of the underlying dimension or measure. The field accepts Excel-style formatting. If no formatting is specified, the value displays in the format of the underlying dimension or measure. MS Excel's complete guide details how to specify these formats in their documentation. However, color formatting is not currently supported in Looker.
The Adding custom formatting to numeric fields documentation page provides more information on how to use custom formatting. Scale TypeYou can specify how the x-axis scale is calculated and displayed:
Reverse AxisYou can toggle the direction of the x-axis. When this is off, values increase from left to right. When this is on, values decrease from left to right. Allow ZoomThis option is available only for Cartesian charts (column, bar, scatterplot, line, or area charts). This option defaults to enabled. When it's enabled, you can zoom on a visualization in a dashboard, a Look, or an Explore. See the Viewing dashboards or Viewing Looks documentation page for information about how to use the zoom feature. When this option is disabled, the Allow Zoom option on the Y menu is hidden and you cannot zoom on the visualization. Show Axis NameYou can toggle the appearance of the x-axis name label. Custom Axis NameYou can set the name for the x-axis using any string value. This option is only available when Show Axis Name is ON. Axis Value LabelsAxis Value Labels toggles the appearance of value labels on the x-axis. GridlinesYou can toggle the appearance of gridlines extending from the x-axis. Gridlines are spaced based on the scaling of the x-axis. Label RotationYou can set the rotation of the x-axis value labels. This parameter accepts values between -360 and 360, denoting the number of degrees to rotate the labels. Time Label FormatYou can specify how x-axis value labels display for charts with a time dimension on the x-axis. This parameter accepts time formatting syntax, as shown below. See Time Formatting for Looker Charts for all formatting options.
GridlinesYou can toggle the appearance of gridlines extending from the y-axis. Gridlines are spaced based on the scaling of the y-axis. Reverse AxisYou can toggle the direction of the y-axis. When off, values increase going up the axis. When on, values decrease going up the axis. Allow ZoomThis option is only available for Cartesian charts (column, bar, scatterplot, line, or area charts). This option is available only when the Allow Zoom option on the X menu is enabled. This option defaults to enabled. When it's enabled, you can zoom on a visualization in a dashboard, a Look, or an Explore. See the Viewing dashboards or Viewing Looks documentation page for information about how to use the zoom feature. If this option is disabled but the Allow Zoom option on the X menu is enabled, you cannot zoom on portions of the y-axis; you can zoom only on portions of the x-axis, as shown in the following visualization: Left Axes and Right AxesYou can configure a chart's y-axes. This example shows shows a chart with three y-axes, two on the left and one on right, each on a different scale: On the left and right side of the chart, you can have one or more y-axes, each associated with one or more data series. Each data series is based on a measure, even if the measure has been pivoted. Table calculations that use a measure are listed as a data series and can be moved to another axis. Benefits of specifying axesUsing this functionality, any chart can:
Each y-axis has its own set of configuration options and displays one or more data series on a scale relative to that y-axis. Special cases for specifying axesEach measure goes on one axis. If you have a measure pivoted, all of its pivoted values go on the same axis. To specify the axis for a particular measure for each pivot, use filtered measures instead. Create a filtered measure for each possible value (and maybe one more for any unanticipated values). Then you can specify which axis to use for each of your new measures. Charts with the Series Positioning option set to Grouped or Overlay can have multiple y-axes. Any Stacked or Stacked Percentage charts will have one stacked data series and one y-axis. Assigning, removing, and changing axesTo assign a data series to a y-axis, click and drag the data series to the desired Left or Right Axes area. You can create a new axis or add the data series to an existing y-axis. This example shows the Total Sale Price data series being moved from the Left 1 y-axis to the Right Axes area to create a new Right 1 y-axis. A tab is created for the new Right 1 y-axis that contains configuration options for the Right 1 y-axis. You can also remove an axis by dragging each of its data series to another y-axis. When moving a data series to a different axis:
Configure AxisThe Configure Axis section displays a tab for each y-axis configured in the Left Axes and Right Axes sections: Click on the tab for an axis to configure that y-axis. You configure each y-axis separately using its own set of configuration options. Scale TypeYou can specify how the y-axis scale is calculated and displayed. Not all options below apply to all chart types.
Show Axis NamesYou can toggle the appearance of y-axis name labels. Show Axis ValuesYou can toggle the appearance of y-axis values. Unpin Axis from ZeroYou can toggle the chart focus on the area for which data exists, rather than showing the full scale starting at zero. Axis NameYou can enter the label for the selected y-axis. Y Axis FormatYou can specify the number format of the y-axis values, independent of the underlying dimension or measure. The parameter accepts Excel style formatting. If no formatting is specified, the value displays in the format of the underlying dimension or measure. Excel's complete guide explains how to specify these formats in their documentation. At this time, date formatting and color formatting are not supported in Looker. Some of the most common formatting options are:
Tick DensityYou can set the density of tick marks on the y-axis:
Minimum ValueYou can define the minimum value for the selected y-axis. Maximum ValueYou can define the maximum value for the selected y-axis. Add Reference LineReference lines are applied to the first series in your query results and ignore any hidden series. You can reorder the columns in the data table to change the series the reference line is applied to. The Add Reference Line button enables the creation of reference lines in a chart. Click it as many times as you like to add any number of reference lines and reveal the settings for those reference lines. To delete a reference line, click the X in the upper right of its settings. Type (for a reference line)You can specify the type of reference line to apply to the chart:
Value, Start Value, and End Value (for a reference line)You can specify the point on the axis to plot the reference line. You can set the value to the median, average (mean), maximum, or minimum for the data returned in your query results. You can also select Custom to enter a specific value from the axis. When Type is set to Range, the Start Value and End Value settings replace the Value setting; they accept the same types of values as Value. Margin Above and Margin Below (for a reference line)Margin Above and Margin Below specify the shaded ranges to plot on either side of a reference line when Type is set to Line with Margins. You can set the margin values to the population standard deviation or population variance for your query results. You can also select Custom to enter a specific value or "min", "max", "mean", or "median" to use those calculations from your query results. Label (for a reference line)You can specify the label to appear on the reference line in the Label field. You can also use the following calculations, embedded in double curly brackets {{ }}, in the Label field:
For example, enter "Average: \{{mean}}" to show something like Average: 123.4. If you leave the Label field blank, the value of the line appears on the reference line. Label Position (for a reference line)You can position the reference line label at the left of the chart, the right of the chart, or in the center, by selecting one of those options under Label Position. Color (for a reference line)You can specify the color of the reference line in a chart. Click the color box to reveal a palette picker that you can scroll through to choose a color. To choose a custom color, select the Custom tab on the palette picker and use the color picker that appears, or enter a hex string or CSS named color string into the color value box. Value Format (for a reference line)You can add custom formatting to the value shown in the reference line label. You can use Excel-style formatting to format the label value. The Adding custom formatting to numeric fields documentation page provides more information on how to use custom formatting. Add Trend LineTrend lines show the prevailing direction of the data in a chart. If your chart can support a trend line, you will see the Add Trend Line button in the Y menu options. Trend lines are not supported for the following use cases:
Click the Add Trend Line button to add trend lines in your chart. Click it as many times as you like to add any number of trend lines and reveal the settings for those trend lines. To delete a trend line, click the X in the upper right of its settings. Trend TypeYou can specify the type of trend line to apply to the chart:
Period (for a trend line)You can specify the number of data points to include when calculating a moving average. Choose a Trend Type of Moving Average to reveal this setting. Moving averages are typically used for date-based data; the choices are 7 (for a week), 14 (for 2 weeks) and 28 (for 4 weeks). Series Index (for a trend line)You can specify which chart series should have a trend line added to it. This option defaults to Order (for a trend line)You can specify the order of the polynomial calculated by the polynomial regression. The default value is 3. Choose a Trend Type of Polynomial to reveal this setting. Show Label (for a trend line)You can toggle adding a descriptive label to the trend line. Label (for a trend line)You can specify the label text. Label Position (for a trend line)You can specify whether the trend line label appears at the left edge of the trend line, the center of the trend line, or at the right edge of the trend line. Label Type (for a trend line)You can specify the type of label to apply to the trend line:
Color (for a trend line)You can specify the color of the trend line in a chart. Click the color box to reveal a palette picker that you can scroll through to choose a color. To choose a custom color, select the Custom tab on the palette picker and use the color picker that appears, or enter a hex string or CSS named color string into the color value box. |