Charts & Visual Data
Slopegraph & Bump Chart Formula: Tie-Safe Ordinal Rank & Rank-Jump Delta
Stage multi-period Bump Charts and Tufte Slopegraphs by computing tie-broken descending ranks RANK + COUNTIF_prior - 1 and signed rank-climb deltas Rank_Prior - Rank_Current.
Track competitive leaderboard overtakes cleanly with Bump Chart rank deltas!
When absolute market revenue grows across the board, raw line charts climb together and hide competitive overtakes! A Bump Chart plots ordinal Rank (1 at the top via inverted Y-axis) across periods, while a Slopegraph connects Start -> Finish values directly.
Two subtleties matter in spreadsheet staging: (1) break ties deterministically with Unique_Rank = RANK(B2, $B$2:$B$6) + COUNTIF($B$2:B2, B2) - 1 so two tied competitors never overlap on the exact same Y-coordinate, and (2) compute Rank_Climb = Prior_Rank - Current_Rank (not Current - Prior!) so moving from #4 to #2 reports +2 places gained!
| Brand Row | Prior Rev ($k) -> Rank | Current Rev ($k) -> Rank | Places Climbed (Prior - Curr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand A (Row 2) | 420 -> #4 | 540 -> #3 | +1 place climbed |
| Brand B (Row 3) | 580 -> #1 | 560 -> #2 | -1 place slipped |
| Brand E (Row 6) | 460 -> #3 | 610 -> #1 | +2 places climbed (New #1) |
Signed Leaderboard Places Climbed (Prior Rank Minus Current Rank)
Returns positive integer places gained when a brand’s rank number improves toward #1 from B2:B6 to C2:C6.
=RANK(B6, B2:B6) - RANK(C6, C2:C6)Slopegraph Endpoint Label String ("Brand — #Rank ($Valuek)")
Formats right-hand Slopegraph callout text combining current rank and value.
=A6 & " (#" & RANK(C6, C2:C6) & ": $" & C6 & "k)"Try the example
Use the original values or change them to test your understanding.