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Line Chart Visualization

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About Line Charts

The Line Chart is a visualization that you can customize in the Reports section. Every data point is represented by a dot, and each dot in a series is connected by a line.

a line graph where price, durability, and design each have a line and the level of competence (below/above average) are the x axis scale

One axis of the visualization shows the specific answer options being measured, and the other axis represents a discrete value (e.g., counts or percentages of respondents with that option).

Customization

For basic visualization instructions and customization, visit the Visualizations Overview  support page. Continue reading for visualization-specific customization.

Sort

Qtip: This option only appears for questions with two dimensions. For example, Matrix Tables (which have statements and scales), Pick Group and Rank (which have items and groups), and visualizations with a breakout.

By default, your answer choices (or Legend Values) are displayed in order from top to bottom. By selecting Custom, you can drag and drop your legend values into a different order.

Reverse your sort order by clicking the arrow button.

dropdown arrow next to the Custom sort allows you to reverse the order you manually arranged the legend values in

Axis Values

Sometimes, you may have a question with many choices, but you only want to display a few in your graph. The Axis Values feature allows you to hide answers you don’t want to include in your chart by deselecting the checkmark to the left of the choice.

axis values correspond to the values in the x axis

You can also click and drag values to change the order they appear in the chart. First hover over the value, then click and drag the icon to the left.

icon to left of axis value allows you to reorder it

Click into a field and start typing to rename a value in the visualization. This does not affect the name of the choice in the survey or in other data.

editing the axis value in the visualization editing pane changes the label along the x axis

Qtip: Want the Axis Value to revert back to its default name? Just erase what you’ve written, and it’ll automatically go back to what is was before.

Show X Axis

When deselected, the X axis will be removed.

selecting show x axis adds labels on the fields in the x axis

Show Y Axis

When deselected, the Y axis will be removed.

selecting show y axis shows number labels in the left side

Show data values

When selected, the numbers will display above each point on the line. This can be helpful for charts with longer X axes, so that the value is displayed with each point and the person viewing the report does not have to estimate the values based on the scale lines.

selecting show data values adds the value above every dot on the line chart

Transpose

Qtip: This option only appears for questions with two dimensions. For example, Matrix Tables (which have statements and scales), Pick Group and Rank (which have items and groups), and visualizations with a breakout.

When selected, the items listed on the X axis and the items listed on the Y axis will switch places.

line chart with categories like customer service, product, etc. along the bottom, with separate lines for below average, above average, etc. ratings of each

now transposed, line chart with separate lines for customer service, product, etc., with labels along the x axis for below average, above average, etc. ratings of each

Spline

When you select this option, the lines will curve instead of meeting at angles.

spline is selected and the line chart has rounded corners

Vertical Range

The Vertical Range refers to the scale points displayed on the visualization’s Y axis. The visualization tries to account for maximum and minimum values automatically, but if your visualization looks funny, or you want to adjust the appearance of your data, you can manually type new minimum and maximum values in the field.

the min and max have adjusted, changing the appearance of the y axis

Qtip: This feature does not change the actual question’s scale points. It merely changes the range of the data that fits onto the visualization.
Qtip: If you are using Percentage as your metric, then remove 2 decimal places when typing your maximum and minimum values. For example, if you want your maximum to be 100%, just type 1.

Incompatible Fields

Line Charts are compatible with almost every kind of variable in Qualtrics because they can display both discrete data (for example, a finite, five point scale) and continuous data (for example, a question where respondents type in their age). This includes most question types, survey metadata, embedded data, and custom variables, such as Formulas or Bucketed variables.

Below are the few variables Line Charts are not compatible with:

In general, Line Charts are incompatible with open text content that is not numeric.

Qtip: Be careful with numeric data collected from open-ended questions and with finite scales that have hundreds of choices. A Line Chart cannot comfortably display hundreds of choices!

Types of Reports

This visualization can be used in a few different types of report: