A Reference Line is a horizontal or vertical line drawn in the diagram to indicate a computed value. It is typically used to illustrate or compare a fixed value within a category of values, or an average, maximum or minimum of items. Reference lines can be drawn on the top of visible graphic elements of a diagram (for example, bars or lines). By default the lines are drawn on the top. Reference lines can be shown with text label, and reference line information in the legend,
There are two types of reference lines:
Fact column—Fact based reference line to which a statistical function has been assigned (average, minimum or maximum). A fact based is oriented (horizontal or vertical) based on the chart type.
Axis—A non-fact fixed constant value reference line. An axis based reference line is oriented based on the axis to which it is associated.
There can be several reference lines created for the same fact column having different statistical functions associated with each one. Similarly, multiple instances of axis based reference lines can exist for a particular axis. When the statistical function of a reference line is calculated, not only the data from current page, but also the data from all pages of a multi-page chart (or zoomed chart) are included. The category items that are hidden as a result of applying ‘Hide Items’ or ‘Focus on Item’ or ‘Drill Anywhere’ are not included.
If the fixed value assigned to the line is beyond the data range currently shown on fact axis and the axis set up as auto scaled, the data range is expanded automatically for the line to be able to appear.
By default a reference line has a text label associated with it showing auto-generated text. The axis based reference line shows the assigned number value, and the fact based reference line.
The location of the text label is set automatically and cannot be adjusted by a user.
This example shows a fact based reference line associated with an Amount Sales fact column assigned to the Average function.
