Example of a bar chart, with 'Country' as the discrete data set.
A bar chart or bar graph is a chart with rectangular bars with lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally.
Bar charts are used for marking clear data which has learned values. Some examples of discontinuous data include 'shoe size' or 'eye color', for which you would use a bar chart. In contrast, some examples of continuous data would be 'height' or 'weight'. A bar chart is very useful if you are trying to record certain information whether it is continuous or not continuous data. Bar charts also look a lot like a histogram.They are often mistaken for each other.
The first bar graph appeared in the 1786 book The Commercial and Political Atlas, by William Playfair (1759-1823). Playfair was a pioneer in the use of graphical displays and wrote extensively about them.
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