Guides

Which Excel Chart to Use: Column, Line, Pie, Bar, Combo and More

By Ravindra Bagale, Excel & Data Analytics trainer · LinkedIn · Published: 6 October 2026 · Last updated: 6 October 2026

Zoya has to show three things in one meeting: sales by city, the monthly trend, and how orders split by payment mode. She puts all three in pie charts and nobody can read them. The question decides the chart: compare cities with a column chart, show the trend with a line, and use a pie only for a small split.

Choose a chart by the question you want to answer. Comparing items, showing change over time, showing parts of a whole and showing a relationship each have a best chart.

Download the practice file (chart-types-when-to-use.xlsx)

Excel file, 8 KB. It has the sample data used below. All numbers in this workbook are fictional teaching data, not real company figures.

Question → chart

Five rules that make any chart readable

1. Start the value axis of a column or bar chart at 0. A cut axis makes small differences look huge.
2. Sort bars from largest to smallest unless the order means something (like months).
3. Use one colour, and a second colour only to highlight the point you are making.
4. Remove what you do not need: gridlines, 3D effects, legends with one series.
5. Put data labels on a few key points instead of every bar.

Charts to avoid

• 3D pie and 3D column charts: the angle changes how big each slice looks.
• Pie charts with more than five slices: use a bar chart instead.
• Line charts for categories that are not in order (cities): use columns.

Build a combo chart in five steps

1. Select the month, revenue and orders columns on the Combo sheet of the practice file.
2. Click Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts > Combo.
3. Set Revenue to Clustered Column.
4. Set Orders to Line and tick Secondary Axis.
5. Click OK and add axis titles with Chart Elements (+) > Axis Titles.