Section 11: Configuring a Pareto Chart

NOTE: Pareto charts are based on Combo charts, and show a cumulative percentage each bar contributes to the whole. A vector of data is sorted in descending order, and assigned to bar values mapped to the left axis. A line value is calculated based on how much each bar represents as a percentage of the whole, or the cumulative values of all the bars. The line is a cumulative value progressing to the right, showing how much of 100% the bars to that point in the chart collectively represent. The increasing line is drawn over the bars, and mapped to the right axis. Left and right side scales are set automatically. The left scale is set taking into consideration the highest bar can be no larger than 1/2 the scale distance. This leaves room for the line above the bars.

When Completed

Your NetCharts Designer perspective will appear like this:
 
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Getting Started

Start by closing any open editors. Go to NetCharts Designer’s File menu and select the Close All option.
 
Next, create a new project named ParetoChartProject.

Create the Dataset

From the toolbar click on the Create a New Dataset wizard. Name your new dataset data, select Hypersonic SQL from the Data Sources list, and click Next.
 
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Enter the following query:

SELECT Month, “Server 1 Hits” FROM PAGEHITTABLE

into the SQL: text box in the SQL Parameters group. Click Finish. Select the date format MMM-yy (ex. Jan-08) from the Date Format pull down menu in the General group. Two columns of data will be returned:
 
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Create the Pareto Chart

Now that we have created our dataset the next step is to create the Pareto Chart. From the toolbar click on the Create a New Chart icon. Call it ParetoChart, select Pareto for the type and click Finish.
 
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Bind Data to the Pareto Chart

Now we must bind our data that we created in Step 1 to our Pareto Chart. Select the Data Source Binding tab and under the Data tree control select Bar Values. Choose data.ndx as your Data Source. Click the Select Rows and Select Columns buttons.
 
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Next select Bar Labels from the Data tree control, choose data.ndx as the Data Source. Click the Select Rows and Deselect Columns buttons.
 
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Additional Style

In the Presentation tab under the Pareto Chart tree control enter 600 for the W: and 350 for H:spinner adjacent to the Size (pixels): label. Select the Default Text Style as arialbold12pt. Add aChart title of Pareto Analysis.
 
In the Legend group, check the Show Legend check box. Set the Layout to Horizontal and Location to Bottom.
 
Under the Axes tree, Bottom Axes tree set the Tic Labels style as angle30.
 
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