Waterfall chart

Use a waterfall chart to show how a start value becomes an end value through a series of additions and subtractions.

Profit is three quarters of revenue after a grant

Thousands of dollars; each bar starts where the last one ended

IncreaseDecreaseTotal

This chart cannot be displayed here: it needs JavaScript and WebGL.

The same chart in each style

Source

Open in playground

Rich Markdown

```chart
type: waterfall
title: Profit is three quarters of revenue after a grant
subtitle: Thousands of dollars; each bar starts where the last one ended
data:
  inline:
    - step: Sales
      amount: 120
      kind: start
    - step: Costs
      amount: -45.5
    - step: Tax
      amount: -14.5
    - step: Grant
      amount: 30
    - step: Profit
      amount: 90
      kind: total
encoding: {x: step, y: amount, measure: kind}
axes:
  y: {label: Amount, unit: k}
```

Fields that matter

type: waterfall with encoding.x for the step name and encoding.y for its signed amount
encoding.measure names the field that marks a row: start (also absolute, reset) begins from that value, total (also subtotal) ends a run, and anything else is a change added to the running sum
A total that disagrees with the sum of the steps is reported, not replaced
axes.y sets label, format, unit, min and max
style.ratio sets the width to height ratio, and style.facet_scale: free gives each facet its own value scale

Interactions

Hover or focus a bar to read the step’s change and the running total it leads to.
Open the Table view, Download PNG or CSV, or Expand the chart.