# Which chart type fits my data?

> Work from the shape of your data rather than the name of the chart. The plugin sorts chart types by the shape they need, and only a handful of shapes exist.

> **Tip:** You do not have to reshape your data by hand. Open any chart and the Data tab switches to the editor that shape needs — a nesting editor for a treemap, separate node and link tables for a Sankey, a grid for a heatmap.

> **Note:** Not every shape exists in every library. If the type you want has no chip under the tab you are on, try another library before assuming the plugin cannot draw it.

> **Pro feature:** If you are still not sure, paste your data in and ask for a recommendation — the AI features suggest a chart type from the data itself. That needs PRO and your own API key.

## Steps

1. Look at your numbers before you look at the gallery. Open the Data tab on any chart and ask what one row of your own data actually represents — that answer picks the chart type for you.
2. One column of labels plus one or more columns of numbers is the ordinary shape, and the default. Bar, Line, Area, Scatter, Combo, Histogram, Waterfall and most of the rest of the gallery all take it.
3. One row per thing with a single number each — a share of a whole. Use Pie, Donut or Funnel. If you have just one number measured against a range, use Gauge.
4. Rows that describe a spread rather than a point need a chart built for it. Candlestick wants open, high, low and close; Box Plot wants quartiles and outliers.
5. A grid of numbers — categories down the side, categories across the top — is a Heatmap. Dates paired with values are a Calendar.
6. Anything with parents and children nested inside them is hierarchical: Tree, Treemap, Sunburst, Icicle and Circle Packing all read the same nested structure.
7. Rows shaped as source, target and a weight describe flow between things. Use Sankey for volumes moving through stages, Chord for exchange in both directions, and Graph or Network for connections without a direction.
8. Several named axes, each with its own maximum, plus one row of values per series, is a Radar.
9. A few types take free-form structures no table can hold — Parallel Coordinates, Theme River, Geo, Swarm Plot, Voronoi, Bullet, Marimekko and Custom. Pick one of those only if your data already has that shape.

_Topics: chart types, data shape, choosing_

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Install Figma Charts: https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1345221583582136577/figma-charts

More Figma Charts help: https://systergon.com/figma-charts/help