The Waterfall Chart is a built-in chart type in Excel 2016+. Waterfall charts are used to plot the cumulative result of values as a visual running total. The initial and final values sit directly on the horizontal axis and intermediate values are plotted as floating columns - positive values extend upward, and negative values extend downward. The effect is a staircase like display is useful for showing how an initial value is affected by subsequent positive and negative changes. Waterfall charts are sometimes called bridge charts.
Pros
- Simple to create in Excel 2016+
- At-a-glance visual display of positive and negative changes
Cons
- Less common chart type not as familiar to many people
- Built-in waterfall chart type has limited options
A histogram is a visual representation of the distribution of numerical data. It is a special kind of bar graph where bars represent “bins” that group together values at specific intervals. The height of each bar shows the proportion of values in that bin. Typically, there are no gaps between bins to represent continuous data.
In Excel 2016+, a histogram is built-in chart type.
Pros
- Simple to create in Excel 2016+
- At-a-glance visualization of the distribution of numerical data
Cons
- Less common chart type not as familiar to many people
- Built-in histogram chart type has limited options
