What is Graph?
A graph is a pictorial representation of the relationship between two or more values. It shows them in an organized manner, which varies depending on given purposes.
Graph is a very broad term, often used interchangeably with “chart”. However, they are not the same thing: while all graphs are types of charts, not all charts are graphs.
Graph vs Chart
Graph | Chart |
data-oriented | categorization-oriented |
depict trends and changes in that data over time | depict differences between items |
Still – even with the above-mentioned distinction – it is very difficult to properly define such a broad term, and so it might be easier to do that by featuring specific types of graphs.
There are several ones, from which the most common is e.g.:
- Bar Graph
- Segmented Bar Graph
- Column Graph
- Box and Whiskers Graph (also called a Box Plot)
- Frequency Graph (Frequency Table)
- Cumulative Frequency Table
- Frequency Polygon
- Histogram
- Line Graph
- Timeplot
- Relative Frequency Histogram
- Pie Chart
- Scatter Plot
- Stemplot, etc.