Plotting Data with Pareto Charts

A Pareto chart, named after Vilfredo Pareto, is a type of chart that contains both Histogram bars and a line graph, where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the cumulative total is represented by the line. (source: Wikipedia)

The KS6800A PathWave Measurement Analytics software uses the Pareto as the default chart type to plot property data for string and boolean data types. Additionally, you can convert a Histogram chart to a Pareto. However, you cannot convert the default Pareto chart (for string and boolean data types) to a Histogram (or Box and Whisker) chart.

In the Pareto charts, the KS6800A software plots only individual values in the descending order of the frequency of occurrence. While the Pareto chart resembles a Histogram chart, the former plots the number of instances for absolute values than a range of values.

Plotting Default Pareto Charts

To plot a Pareto chart:

  1. Select a field, which has the data type as either string or bool in the Fields dialog.
  1. In the Actions area, click Add field as new chart.
  2. Repeat the previous steps to plot more charts.
The Pareto chart is displayed for the selected measurement data.

  1. To view the measurements in the Pareto, click to select a chart.
  2. Hover the cursor over each bar in the Pareto to view the absolute values covered and the count of each value. The values depicted by each Pareto bar are displayed in the format: <Number of occurrences> <Absolute value> .
You may also find such instances, as shown in the chart for Serial Number, where the Pareto chart accumulates and plots the least occurring values as Other. In such cases, the total count of all such values may appear to be more than the rest of the bars.
  1. Click to close the window for the displayed chart.

Converting Histogram Charts to Pareto

Use the following steps to convert a Histogram chart (plotted by default for integer or float data types) to a Pareto chart.

  1. Click to select the Histogram chart, which you wish to convert to Pareto.
  2. Click to view the Select Chart Type menu.

  1. Select Pareto to plot the corresponding chart.
The Pareto chart for the plotted data appears. Note that the Select Chart Type menu icon changes, indicating that Pareto chart has been plotted. Also, the baselines are removed for all chart types other than Histogram.

In the example shown above, the mouse pointer hovers over the first bar from the left, which shows the absolute value with the highest frequency. The corresponding data, which is displayed in the callout, can be interpreted as "26 measurements for sepal_width are found to be 3 units.". The frequency of the values decrease as you move to the right. However, all values that are less frequent than 3.1 are grouped as Other.
  1. Click to close the window for the displayed chart.