August 26, 2011
Excel: How to create a dual axis chart with overlapping bars and a line
I came across a challenge last week while working on a project. I needed to create a dual-axis chart, with two bars on the primary axis and a line on the secondary axis. Tableau makes this task incredibly easy, but I needed to do this in Excel. Well, I really didn’t HAVE to create the chart in Excel, but others needed to be able to update the chart and they, gasp, don’t have a Tableau license.It’s easy enough to create a dual-axis chart in Excel, if you want the bars side by side. However, I needed overlapping bars. There’s no standard chart design within Excel to accommodate this, which meant I had to come up with a workaround. I perused the internet and didn’t find anyone else that had done this (I’m sure people have done it, but haven’t shared their work), so I wanted to share it with anyone that may need to do it in the future.
A sample Excel workbook can be found here (if your corporate network blocks Dropbox, send me an email and I’ll forward it to you).
The final product looks like this:

Steps to reproduce:
- Highlight your data, insert a 2-D clustered column chart
- Change the bar and line colors if desired
- Right-click on one of the bars that you want on the secondary axis and choose Format Data Series
- Change the Plot Series On option to Secondary Axis
- With the bars on the secondary axis still highlighted, from the Chart Tools Design menu, change the Chart Type to a line
- Right-click on one of the bars that are on the primary axis and choose Format Data Series
- Change the Series Overlap to 100%
- The two bars on the primary axis now completely overlap each other. You’re almost done!
- Remove the gridlines (important…I’ll explain in a bit) and add the axis labels (I hate it when people create dual-axis charts in Excel and don’t add the axis labels!)
- Give the bars the “overlap” look (these are the most important steps to give the bars the proper) by right-clicking on the gray bar (i.e., the bar that’s in the first column of the table) and choosing Format Data Series
- Choose the Border Color option, select Solid Line and set the color to the same color as the bar (in my case, light gray)
- Choose the Border Styles option, change the Width to 10pt (or whatever floats your boat) and change the Cap type to Flat and the Join type to Miter
- That’s it! You’ve create a dual-axis chart in Excel with overlapping bars on the primary axis and a line on the secondary axis.
- Make the border of the bar in the back really thin, but this makes it challenging to see the overlap
- Change the data to account for the thickness, but it’s kinda scary to me to alter the data because if you mouse over the point you see the original data
- Leave the bars thick so that you can clearly see the overlap
I would go with option 3 because the naked eye won’t be able to discern the difference to the bar height anyway. The purpose of the chart, after all, is to give the overall trends and comparisons anyway, not focus on the original data.
If that “change” in the bar size really bothers you, then simply add the data table under the chart:

Don’t we all love challenges! I know I do.
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There are many pitfalls when creating a chart in Excel. For example, when adding the border to the budget, not just the width of the light gray bar was increased, but also the height, this can be seen in the first pair of bars where the values are 200 and 150, but visually looks like 200 and 190.
ReplyDeleteBy adding a line to the bar you visualize the budget as being higher than it actually is so I wouldn't use that technique. There is another option but it involves the secondary axis so I'm not sure if you can still get the line there as well:
ReplyDeletehttp://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/stacked-thermometer-chart/
This reminded me of an interesting article by Stephen Few on dual axis which you might find interesting:
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/dual-scaled_axes.pdf
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI've used the secondary axis trick in the past as you outline in your excellent blog post, but you have to be 100% certain your axes are synchronized. In the example you showed, the axes didn't appear to be the same.
Also, there is no way in Excel to use your technique, but to also have a line.
The easiest solution is to always use Tableau.
Andy
Andy: I have used the dual axis trick in Excel to show the overlap you are talking about. I solved the synchronous axis problem by having a unseen element in both charts which was the maximum value (ie. max of budget and actual in your example). Since we always start at zero so you always get the same scale on both sides.
ReplyDelete- can't do the line as well unless you really want to cheat though, and I have done that before as well :-S
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to know how to create non-overlapping bars in tableau as excel does normally. I don't have a trend line to show. I just need to have a dual axis chart with the bars placed adjacently as excel does normally.
Thanks in advance,
Aayush
Aayush,
ReplyDeleteYou don't need a dual axis chart to build this in Tableau. Use the Show Me if you're ever unsure what you need to build a standard chart type.
As an example, connect to Superstore Sales. Choose Region, Category and Sales. Click on Show Me, then choose side-by-side bar chart.
That's it!
Andy
Hi!
ReplyDeleteCould you please explain a bit more the step 10?
I don't manage to get the overlap as in your chart.
Thanks!
Maggie
You have to click on the gray bars. When you click on one of them, they should all be selected. Then go to step 11.
DeleteHi,
DeleteI might have difficulties to follow those step as I still have Excel 2003 (yes it's possible unfortunetly :-/)
Any back-up solution for old excel version user maybe?
Thanks!
/Maggie
Thanks for this! really helped
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteA question: Do you know how to do this for a total of 4 series, (on the chart)? (I.E ,making 2 sets of overlapping bars)
eg: For the columns/series A,a, B,b : -> "A" over "a" , and "B" over "b".
Thanks,,!
I do not know how Dan. I haven't built a chart in Excel since probably around the time I wrote this blog post.
DeleteWhen you have two number of the same value the bars' top lines dont match because the thicker outline creates a problem for the bars
ReplyDeleteThank You very must.
ReplyDeleteI'm stuck on how to do this in Tableau. Any suggestions??
ReplyDeleteI outline how to do this in Tableau in this post http://www.vizwiz.com/2016/09/tableau-tip-tuesday-how-to-create.html
Delete