Pie charts

[amoken]

It has repeatedly come to my attention that people don't understand how and when to use pie charts. In general, pie charts are an inferior visualization; you almost always want a bar chart or a table or a list instead. There are very specific situations when pie charts are a reasonable choice, and there are some rules you should always follow

Comments

[dixiemouse]

What if the options involve apple, strawberry/rhubarb, and/or cherry? ;)

[amoken]

In that case it can be 3D, so we can get the full impact of the rich dataset. ;)

[dixiemouse]

Excellent. Just wanted to be sure I had my parameters correct. :)

[elgecko]

But... pies are yummy!

[mtbg]

Preach on, sister.

(Also: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vowe/2055396526/)

[vrable]

And: http://www.tshirtbordello.com/Remember-Pacman-T-Shirt.

[tdw]

Amen.

[mew0422]

Ditto on the amen. More rants availble on junkcharts (http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/pie_chart/).

Better pie chart: http://crazyjeremy.com/2010/02/01/pie-that-i-have-eaten/