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specialized family

dot-plot

Single dots placed along a value axis per category.

Category on one axis, value on the other, marked by dots only. More compact than bars; works well for many categories where you just need the value.

When to use

15+ categories where bars would feel cluttered.

When NOT to use

Reader expects to see magnitudes as length (use bar).

Rhetorical roles

  • compare
  • rank

Variants & related

Required primitives

  • has_axis_titles

Optional primitives

  • has_data_labels

Common anti-patterns

  • missing-label

Disambiguation rules

  • Single dot per category along a value axis. No bars.
  • If a thin line/stem connects each dot to the axis, it is lollipop.
  • If two dots per category joined by a line, it is dumbbell.