Comments on: When Pie Charts Are Okay (Seriously): Guidelines for Using Pie and Donut Charts https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/ Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:10:50 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Ann K. Emery https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-338745 Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:10:50 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-338745 In reply to Afolabi Anibaba.

You can definitely sort your dataset at any time.

]]> By: Afolabi Anibaba https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-338200 Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:24:47 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-338200 Is it a bad idea to sort data meant for analysis during the Data Cleaning exercise, perhaps to easily trace for duplicate entries or study patterns?

Sometimes, what appears to be a duplication may actually not be. I recently studied a dataset in which a field that should serve as its Key contained duplicate entries, whereas, other adjacent fields are distinct.

In that case, after trying to remove duplicate records but realizing there are none, you want to see if the Key field does not contain duplicate entries. That is why I suppose sorting the records in an order and running the eyes over it could reveal such.

My concern is just that I’ve never read a material nor seen a video that mentions sorting dataset during its preparation. So, I wonder if it is a MUST-NOT-DO.

]]> By: Jon Peltier https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-246261 Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:01:32 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-246261 I see that I chimed in three years ago, to say that 5 or 6 values in a pie chart is okay. I would even suggest that more is okay, if it is formatted well, and the point might be to show that one or two pies take up the vast majority of the total, and you’re left with a lot of little skinny pieces.

One rule you don’t include is that with more than 2 slices, the date should be sorted largest to smallest.

]]> By: Horacio Lewis https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-90067 Thu, 26 Oct 2023 12:30:58 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-90067 exelente Artículo, estoy totalmente de acuerdo, aplicaré tus recomendaciones

]]> By: ixtract https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-78427 Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:40:18 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-78427 To use ordinal data in pie charts is key, if you want to know which answer to a question is the majority!
Creating diagrams is not about feeling, or self defined rules, it is about knowing how visualization works.

The worst diagrams are stacked bar charts in sense of reception!

https://eagereyes.org/blog/2016/a-reanalysis-of-a-study-about-square-pie-charts-from-2009
https://eagereyes.org/techniques/stacked-bars-are-the-worst

]]> By: Jon Peltier https://depictdatastudio.com/when-pie-charts-are-okay-seriously-guidelines-for-using-pie-and-donut-charts/#comment-39116 Mon, 14 Mar 2022 23:35:05 +0000 http://annkemery.com/?p=7316#comment-39116 You can probably get away with 5 or 6 wedges in a pie chart. Other than this, I’m in agreement with this article.

]]>