There may be a requirement in which a bar chart needs to group the bars together in a specific way in order to better explain the data being shown. Refer to the following screenshots and explanation to understand how to perform this type of modification if this requirement arises:
Take a very simple report template and observe how it displays in Graph View:
Notice that the bars are described by the labels on the X Axis, which break down as follows: Central (Region attribute), Jan 2010 (Month attribute), and either Lethal Weapon 4 or Zorro (custom group elements based on Item attribute). In addition, notice that the bars are all separated as a single bar based on their Revenue. What if a user wanted to group up the bars to see the difference in revenue between the two items being compared?
To achieve this type of grouping of the bars on the bar chart, place the object in which you want the bars to reflect above the metrics on the report template. Refer to the following example and observe the changes reflected in the bar chart:
Notice how placing the custom group object above the metric columns causes the bar chart to now display a specific Item's Revenue for each Region and Month combination, as opposed to just Revenue based on each Region, Month, and Item combination. This type of modification can be useful to make a graph much more visually appealing, as well as making it easier to interpret.
One final example to display how this can be compounded for more advanced bar groupings can be observed by referring to the following example:
When placing the Month attribute above the Item Custom Group causes the graph to now display bars for each Month's Item's Revenue per Region. After the desired modification for the bar grouping is achieved, further formatting can be done on the graph to appeal to certain color schemes, text sizes, fonts, etc.
