How to create a chart

Charts are only available for datasets with a validated CSV file. If you have not uploaded your data yet, see How to publish data.

Introduction

A chart gives people a quick read of your dataset before they download it or call the API. You create charts in the admin panel, on the same page you use to manage the dataset. Once the dataset is published, the chart appears on its public page.

You can create more than one chart per dataset.

Before you start

Your CSV must be uploaded and validated. Until then the Create chart button is unavailable and the Charts section shows "No data available".

One row per observation works best. The editor reads your data down the rows, so each row should be a single observation with one column per variable. Data laid out with years or categories as separate columns needs reshaping before you upload it.

Harder to chart – each year is its own column:

Region	2023	2024
North	14,384	15,120
South	9,201	9,876

Ready to chart – one row per observation:

Region	Year	Value
North	2023	14,384
North	2024	15,120
South	2023	9,201
South	2024	9,876

Display Names fill in your axis labels. The Display Names you set during validation are reused as axis labels, so facility_size becomes "Facility Size" without you retyping it. Setting good Display Names before you start saves work here.

Your column types are detected when you upload, and they decide which controls the editor offers:

Column contains	Detected as	Control you get on the X-axis
Numbers, with or without thousands separators (14,384)	Number	Range
Dates in one of the six supported formats	Date	Range
Anything else – names, categories, codes	Text	Sort

The Y-axis only accepts number columns, because it has to add up or average what you give it. Group by accepts any column type.

Chart type

Chart type	Best for	Example
Bar	Comparing values across categories	Applications by town
Line	Change over a time period	Monthly rainfall, 2010 to 2025
Area	Change over time where the overall volume matters	Cumulative registrations
Stacked bar	How parts add up to a total	Intake by course, by year

New charts start as Bar. You can change the type at any point without losing your other settings.

Step 1: Create your chart

1. In the admin panel, open your dataset and scroll down to the Charts section.

2. Click Create chart. The chart editor opens on the right, with a live preview beside it. The preview updates as you fill the form in.

1. Choose a Chart type.

2. Enter a Title (optional). The title gets auto-populated when you select the X-axis and Y-axis. You can overwrite it by filling in the Title field.

3. Under X-axis, choose the Column for the horizontal axis. This is usually a time period or a category. The Label fills in from that column's Display Name – edit it if you want different wording, or clear it to leave the axis unlabelled.

1. Under Y-axis, choose the Column for the vertical axis, then choose a Measure. The measure tells the editor what to do when several rows share the same X-axis value.

Measure	What it plots
Sum	All values added together – the default
Count	How many rows there are
Min	The lowest value
Max	The highest value
Average	The mean of the values
Distinct	How many different values there are

1. To draw one series per category, choose a column under Group by.

1. Check the preview, then click Create.

For large datasets, the editor previews your chart on a subset of the rows and tells you so above the preview. The saved chart uses the whole dataset.

Step 2: Check and publish

Your chart is saved to the dataset as soon as you click Create, but it only becomes visible to the public when the dataset is published. See How to publish data.

To add another chart, click Create chart again. When a dataset has more than one chart, thumbnails appear below it – click one to switch between them.

To change a chart you have already saved, see How to edit a chart.

Common issues

What you see	Likely cause	What to try
Create chart is unavailable, "No data available"	The dataset has no validated CSV	Upload and validate a CSV first
My column is missing from the Y-axis list	The Y-axis only lists number columns	Check the column holds numbers – empty cells and markers like "n/a" are fine, but text is not
The preview stays empty	X-axis or Y-axis is not filled in	Both are required before a chart can render
Dates are in the wrong order	The date column is not in a supported format	Reformat it to YYYY, YYYY-MM, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-QN, YYYY-HN or YYYY-WNN and re-upload

For further queries feel free to reach out to us: Contact the Data.gov.sg team.