Pie in a Pie Chart Problem

Question

I have the following data in Excel:

Values
Sum of Accounts	1379
Sum of Has ECX	227
Sum of Ports w VC	382
Sum of Ports wo VC	160

I want to show the sum of accounts as a segment in the first pie along with the Sum of Has ECX (so 2 segments in pie chart 1). Then as a sub pie of the ECX segment I would like to show another pie with the 2 slices for sum of ports w VC and sum of ports wo VC. The problem is, Excel creates a third segment in pie chart 1 showing the sum total of the sum of ports from Pie 2. Hope that makes sense! Can anyone help pls? thanks rough drawing below

Answer 1

Here are some tips

create pie of pie or bar of pie chart in Excel?

https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/1442-excel-create-pie-of-pie-chart.html

The pie chart can reflect the number of relations between part and part, part and whole, it used to show the percentage. If there are several tiny slices even less than 10 percent of your pie chart, it is hard for you to see them. In this case, you can use the pie of pie or bar of pie chart to make your chart more coherent. However, how to create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart in Excel?

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**************** Bonus reading ******************************

Pie of a Pie of a Pie chart [Good or Bad?]http://chandoo.org/wp/2012/11/09/pie-of-pie-of-pie-chart/

There are some charts that look so stunning and yet confusing. You cant make up your mind whether it tells a compelling story or it is just plain wrong.

Today, let me present you one such chart. I call this Pie of a Pie of a Pie chart (source: thiswoo, thanks to Nassar, our forum member for mentioning this)

The idea of this chart is quite noble. Show how the water in this world is distributed. Obviously, with such large numbers, making one chart would be difficult. So make 3. The initial pie of salt vs. fresh water, which explodes to show the distribution of fresh water which explodes to show the spread of other water sources.

The chart narrates the story of how little water is available for consumption and where it is one simple picture. ****And the pie leaking in to another pie metaphor works really well in this case.

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Haven't you heard, "pie charts are evil"

@ World’s Most Accurate Pie Chart - When Not To Use Pie Charts      2013 03 13      Mynda Treacy

http://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/worlds-most-accurate-pie-chart

Here it is, the World’s most Accurate Pie Chart

excel chart- Worlds most accurate pie chart

As fun as this chart is, it actually makes a valid point and that is; pie charts are (typically) not very useful.

Why? They’re slow to interpret because they usually have too many slices with teeny weeny labels on stalks.

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Pie Chartshttp://excelcharts.com/resources/pie-charts/

Let me tell you this upfront: if you love pie charts and use them all the time you have a serious problem and  you should take a data visualization crash course immediately. I like to discuss pie charts when I’m bored. It amuses me and it doesn’t require much thinking.

.  *  Pie charts: a never ending discussion

.  *  Pie Charts – A Devil’s Advocate Point of View

.  *  How to Make Better Pie Charts with On-Demand Details

.  *  How Many Computer Scientists Does It Take to Screw Up a Pie Chart?

.  *  The Best Pie Charts Come From Germany

.  *  Uncommon knowledge about pie charts

.  *  The business analyst t-shirt

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42% of the world goes to polls around a pie chart – Like it or hate it?http://chandoo.org/wp/2014/01/10/world-elections-in-2014-chart/

Today let’s have a poll. Lets debate if this pie chart about world elections in 2014 is good or bad.

Make Over- Combine pie and xy scatter charts – World Polls chart Revistedhttp://chandoo.org/wp/2014/02/04/world-polls-chart-revisited/

Few days ago, we learned how to create a pie+donut combination chart to visualize polls around the world in 2014. It generated quite a bit of interesting discussion (47 comments so far). One of the comments was from Roberto, who along with Kris & Gábor runs The FrankensTeam an online library of advanced Excel tricks, charts and other mind-boggling spreadsheet wizardry.

I really liked Roberto’s comments on the original post and a charting solution he presented. So I asked him if he can do a guest post explaining the technique to our audience. He obliged and here we go.

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6 Six charts from Excel Hell         2008 09 04https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/excel/six-charts-from-excel-hell

Have you ever been tempted to throw caution to the wind and try out one of the less bland chart options within Excel? Before doing so, it might be worth heeding the warning from **Pointy Haired Dilbert** about "grotesque charts you should never make, not even on your last day of work".

    Radar charts - leave them to Spidermen

    Donut charts - the "evil twin of Pie"

    3D line graphs - never use as they make it hard to compare series

    Multiple pie charts - if one pie chart is bad, two are worse

    3D column charts that lose information behind overlapping columns - "Don't make your charts look like downtown"

    Unstacked area charts - "visually revolting, even with perfect data points"

A Pie Chart Alternative For Survey Data 2019 02 27

https://www.excelcampus.com/charts/pie-chart-alternative-survey-data/

Learn why a pie chart is not always the most effective way to present your data, and how to use a bar chart as a possible alternative.

ET MR Charting.docx.

Alternative to Bad Pie Charts - Parts to a Whole Excel Charts

https://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/parts-to-a-whole-excel-charts

For many people when they think of a chart that shows parts to a whole, a pie chart is the first choice. And if you’ve known me for any length of time you’ll know I pretty much despise data in a pie. Don’t get me wrong, I love pies. It would be un-Australian not to like pie. So if Pie Charts are evil then what’s the alternative?  before you jump in with ‘Stacked Column Charts’, the answer is no, definitely not. They’re second on my bad chart list, but that’s a rant for another day. The alternative is almost always a bar chart, a Parts to a Whole Bar Chart

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Why Tufte Is Flat-Out Wrong About Pie Charts       2013 03 18   Bruce Gabrielle

http://speakingppt.com/2013/03/18/why-tufte-is-flat-out-wrong-about-pie-charts/

Some critics have come crashing down hard on pie charts. Edward Tufte says “the only worse design than a pie chart is several of them.” Stephen Few says “save the pies for dessert“. Cole Nussbaumer says “Death to pie charts.”

Well, they are all wrong. Pie charts deserve your respect. And I’ll tell you why. First, let’s consider the critics’ valid criticisms:

   1.    A bar chart allows more accurate comparisons than the slices in a pie chart

   2.    A line chart shows trends over time more clearly than side by side pie charts

In fact, despite some of the valid reasons to avoid pie charts, there are also valid reasons pie charts can be SUPERIOR to line charts and bar charts:

   1.    Is more enjoyable to look at than a bar chart or line chart

   2.    Communicates part-to-whole relationship better

   3.    Easier to estimate percentages

Let's tackle each of these in turn

ET MR Charting.docx.

Answer 2

Hi there! I am Lyn, an Independent Advisor. It is my duty to assist you in solving an issue. Please follow me thoroughly as I would be giving you detailed instruction.

Answer 3

I apologize for keeping you wait. I assume you have already created a pie of pie chart (if not, please highlight all the values and go to INSERT --- PIE ----2D PIE ----PIE OF PIE).

Now please right click on the second pie and go to FORMAT DATA SERIES.

Under SERIES OPTIONS, click on SPLIT SERIES BY.

Then click CUSTOM.

Now click the Sum of Ports w VC 382 in your pie chart. Go back to SERIES OPTIONS---POINT BELONGS TO -----click second plot.

Do the same with Sum of Ports wo VC 160 in the pie chart.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Lyn

Answer 4

Hi Lyn thanks for taking the time to reply, however, the 2 segments in pie 2 still don't relate to the ECX segment in the first pie. As I said earlier, the first pie is showing the sum total of both segments from pie 2, and this is still the case. Hope someone can help, if it can be done that is... thanks

Answer 5

Hello Anita,

I am V. Arya, Independent Advisor, to work with you on this issue. Your problem can't be solved by Pie of Pie. In Pie of Pie, second pie will always be distribution of one slice in the pie.

You just simply need to make two pies. One for first two values and one for last two values.