How to format your data

Dates down the side

One column for each thing you're comparing, one row for each date. The usual spreadsheet layout.

Dates across the top

One row for each thing, the dates as column headers. How Wikipedia and the World Bank lay out tables.

One row per entry

A list of donations, sales, matches or posts, with as many columns as you like. Pick which column becomes the bars, which number to add up and which column is the timeline. We add it all up.

Date, name, value

Exactly three columns and one row per data point. What databases and many data downloads give you.

A ranking, no dates

Just names and one number. The bars grow in from zero and settle in order.

Lists of donations, sales or matches

A lot of real data is a list of separate entries: every political donation, every sale, every game. Each row has its own date, a name, an amount and maybe notes. You don't need to rearrange it first. Paste the whole list and the editor shows a Pick what to chart box with three choices:

Bars and lines

The column whose values become the bars, such as Donor. Each different donor gets one bar. Choose Party instead and you get a two-way race between the parties.

Add up

The number to total for each bar, such as Amount. If your file has two money columns (say, the original amount and the amount in today's dollars), pick the one you want. Count the rows charts how many entries each one has instead.

Timeline

The column the video moves through, usually Year or Date. Choose No timeline to show one ranking of the overall totals.

Running total

On by default. Each bar keeps everything it has added up so far, so the race shows who has given the most up to that year. Turn it off to show each year on its own.

Columns like Rank, Notes or Source are ignored. Rows missing a name, an amount or a date are skipped, and the editor tells you how many.

Read as: Amount added up for each Donor, by Year, as a running total.