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Waterfall

Overview

The waterfall trace type is used to create waterfall charts, which are useful for visualizing incremental changes in value over a series of categories or time. Waterfall charts are commonly used in financial and analytical contexts to show how sequential positive or negative values affect an initial value.

You can customize the colors, connectors, and base values to represent your data effectively.

Common Uses

  • Financial Analysis: Visualizing profit and loss over time or across categories.
  • Incremental Changes: Showing how individual positive or negative changes affect a starting value.
  • Part-to-Whole Visualization: Highlighting how parts contribute to a cumulative total.

Check out the Attributes for the full set of configuration options

Examples

Common Configurations

Here's a simple waterfall plot showing incremental changes across categories:

You can copy this code below to create this chart in your project:

models:
  - name: waterfall-data
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        idx,label,value
        0,Starting,1000
        1,Increase A,200
        2,Decrease B,-150
        3,Increase C,300
        4,Ending,1350
traces:
  - name: Simple Waterfall Plot
    model: ref(waterfall-data)
    props:
      type: waterfall
      x: query(label)
      y: query(value)
      measure: ["initial", "relative", "relative", "relative", "total"]
    order_by: 
      - query( idx asc)
charts:
  - name: Simple Waterfall Chart
    traces:
      - ref(Simple Waterfall Plot)
    layout:
      title:
        text: Simple Waterfall Plot<br><sub>Sequential Changes in Value</sub>

This example demonstrates a waterfall plot where the bars have custom colors for different categories:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: waterfall-data-colors
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        idx,label,value,color
        0,Starting,1000,#1f77b4
        1,Increase A,200,#2ca02c
        2,Decrease B,-150,#d62728
        3,Increase C,300,#ff7f0e
        4,Ending,1350,#9467bd
traces:
  - name: Waterfall Plot with Custom Colors
    model: ref(waterfall-data-colors)
    props:
      type: waterfall
      x: query(label)
      y: query(value)
      measure: ["initial", "relative", "relative", "relative", "total"]
      increasing:
        marker: 
          color: 'orange'
      decreasing: 
        marker: 
          color: 'purple'
      totals: 
        marker: 
          color: 'grey'
          line: 
            color: 'orange'
            width: 4
    order_by: 
      - query( idx asc)
charts:
  - name: Waterfall Chart with Custom Colors
    traces:
      - ref(Waterfall Plot with Custom Colors)
    layout:
      title:
        text: Waterfall Plot with Custom Colors<br><sub>Customized Coloring for Categories</sub>

Here's a waterfall plot demonstrating a financial use case with connectors and custom formatting:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: waterfall-data-connectors
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        idx,quarter,half,value,mode
        0,Q1,H1,1000,initial
        1,Q2,H1,200,relative
        2,Gross Profit,H1 Summary,0,total
        3,Q3,H2,-150,relative
        4,Q4,H2,300,relative
        5,Gross Profit,FY2024,0,total
traces:
  - name: Waterfall Plot with Connectors
    model: ref(waterfall-data-connectors)
    props:
      type: waterfall
      x: 
        - query(half)
        - query(quarter)
      y: query(value)
      measure: query(mode)
      hovertemplate: "%{x}: %{y:$.2f}"
      texttemplate: "%{delta:$.2f}"
      textposition: "outside"
      connector:
        line:
          color: "orange"
          width: 5
    order_by: 
      - query( idx asc)
charts:
  - name: Waterfall Chart with Connectors
    traces:
      - ref(Waterfall Plot with Connectors)
    layout:
      title:
        text: Financial Waterfall
      margin: 
        b: 50
        t: 60
      yaxis:
        range: [0, 1600]
        tickprefix: '$'
        title: 
          text: "Millions ($)"

Attributes

These attributes apply to traces where trace.props.type is set to waterfall. You would configure these attributes on the trace with the trace.props object. 

alignmentgroup: 'string' #(1)!
base: 'number' #(2)!
cliponaxis: 'boolean' #(3)!
connector:
  line:
    color: 'color' #(4)!
    dash: 'string' #(5)!
    width: 'number greater than or equal to 0' #(6)!
  mode: 'enumerated , one of ( "spanning" | "between" )' #(7)!
  visible: 'boolean' #(8)!
constraintext: 'enumerated , one of ( "inside" | "outside" | "both" | "none" )' #(9)!
customdata: 'data array' #(10)!
decreasing:
  marker:
    color: 'color' #(11)!
    line:
      color: 'color' #(12)!
      width: 'number greater than or equal to 0' #(13)!
dx: 'number' #(14)!
dy: 'number' #(15)!
hoverinfo: 'flaglist string. any combination of "name", "x", "y", "text", "initial",
  "delta", "final" joined with a "+" or "all" or "none" or "skip".' #(16)!
hoverlabel:
  align: 'enumerated or array of enumerateds , one of ( "left" | "right" | "auto"
    )' #(17)!
  bgcolor: 'color or array of colors' #(18)!
  bordercolor: 'color or array of colors' #(19)!
  font:
    color: color or array of colors
    family: 'string or array of strings' #(20)!
    size: number or array of numbers greater than or equal to 1
  namelength: 'integer or array of integers greater than or equal to -1' #(21)!
hovertemplate: 'string or array of strings' #(22)!
hovertext: 'string or array of strings' #(23)!
ids: 'data array' #(24)!
increasing:
  marker:
    color: 'color' #(25)!
    line:
      color: 'color' #(26)!
      width: 'number greater than or equal to 0' #(27)!
insidetextanchor: 'enumerated , one of ( "end" | "middle" | "start" )' #(28)!
insidetextfont:
  color: color or array of colors
  family: 'string or array of strings' #(29)!
  size: number or array of numbers greater than or equal to 1
legendgroup: 'string' #(30)!
legendgrouptitle:
  font:
    color: color
    family: 'string' #(31)!
    size: number greater than or equal to 1
  text: 'string' #(32)!
legendrank: 'number' #(33)!
legendwidth: 'number greater than or equal to 0' #(34)!
measure: 'data array' #(35)!
meta: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(36)!
offset: 'number or array of numbers' #(37)!
offsetgroup: 'string' #(38)!
opacity: 'number between or equal to 0 and 1' #(39)!
orientation: 'enumerated , one of ( "v" | "h" )' #(40)!
outsidetextfont:
  color: color or array of colors
  family: 'string or array of strings' #(41)!
  size: number or array of numbers greater than or equal to 1
selectedpoints: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(42)!
showlegend: 'boolean' #(43)!
text: 'string or array of strings' #(44)!
textangle: 'angle' #(45)!
textfont:
  color: color or array of colors
  family: 'string or array of strings' #(46)!
  size: number or array of numbers greater than or equal to 1
textinfo: 'flaglist string. any combination of "label", "text", "initial", "delta",
  "final" joined with a "+" or "none".' #(47)!
textposition: 'enumerated or array of enumerateds , one of ( "inside" | "outside"
  | "auto" | "none" )' #(48)!
texttemplate: 'string or array of strings' #(49)!
totals:
  marker:
    color: 'color' #(50)!
    line:
      color: 'color' #(51)!
      width: 'number greater than or equal to 0' #(52)!
type: waterfall
uirevision: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(53)!
visible: 'enumerated , one of ( true | false | "legendonly" )' #(54)!
width: 'number or array of numbers greater than or equal to 0' #(55)!
x: 'data array' #(57)!
x0: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(56)!
xaxis: 'subplotid' #(58)!
xhoverformat: 'string' #(59)!
xperiod: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(61)!
xperiod0: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(60)!
xperiodalignment: 'enumerated , one of ( "start" | "middle" | "end" )' #(62)!
y: 'data array' #(64)!
y0: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(63)!
yaxis: 'subplotid' #(65)!
yhoverformat: 'string' #(66)!
yperiod: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(68)!
yperiod0: 'number or categorical coordinate string' #(67)!
yperiodalignment: 'enumerated , one of ( "start" | "middle" | "end" )' #(69)!
  1. Set several traces linked to the same position axis or matching axes to the same alignmentgroup. This controls whether bars compute their positional range dependently or independently.
  2. Sets where the bar base is drawn (in position axis units).
  3. Determines whether the text nodes are clipped about the subplot axes. To show the text nodes above axis lines and tick labels, make sure to set xaxis.layer and yaxis.layer to "below traces".
  4. Sets the line color.
  5. Sets the dash style of lines. Set to a dash type string ("solid", "dot", "dash", "longdash", "dashdot", or "longdashdot") or a dash length list in px (eg "5px,10px,2px,2px").
  6. Sets the line width (in px).
  7. Sets the shape of connector lines.
  8. Determines if connector lines are drawn.
  9. Constrain the size of text inside or outside a bar to be no larger than the bar itself.
  10. Assigns extra data each datum. This may be useful when listening to hover, click and selection events. Note that, "scatter" traces also appends customdata items in the markers DOM elements
  11. Sets the marker color of all decreasing values.
  12. Sets the line color of all decreasing values.
  13. Sets the line width of all decreasing values.
  14. Sets the x coordinate step. See x0 for more info.
  15. Sets the y coordinate step. See y0 for more info.
  16. Determines which trace information appear on hover. If none or skip are set, no information is displayed upon hovering. But, if none is set, click and hover events are still fired.
  17. Sets the horizontal alignment of the text content within hover label box. Has an effect only if the hover label text spans more two or more lines
  18. Sets the background color of the hover labels for this trace
  19. Sets the border color of the hover labels for this trace.
  20. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser will only be able to apply a font if it is available on the system which it operates. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the preference in which to apply fonts if they aren't available on the system. The Chart Studio Cloud (at https://chart-studio.plotly.com or on-premise) generates images on a server, where only a select number of fonts are installed and supported. These include "Arial", "Balto", "Courier New", "Droid Sans",, "Droid Serif", "Droid Sans Mono", "Gravitas One", "Old Standard TT", "Open Sans", "Overpass", "PT Sans Narrow", "Raleway", "Times New Roman".
  21. Sets the default length (in number of characters) of the trace name in the hover labels for all traces. -1 shows the whole name regardless of length. 0-3 shows the first 0-3 characters, and an integer >3 will show the whole name if it is less than that many characters, but if it is longer, will truncate to namelength - 3 characters and add an ellipsis.
  22. Template string used for rendering the information that appear on hover box. Note that this will override hoverinfo. Variables are inserted using %{variable}, for example "y: %{y}" as well as %{xother}, {%xother}, {%_xother}, {%xother_}. When showing info for several points, "xother" will be added to those with different x positions from the first point. An underscore before or after "(x|y)other" will add a space on that side, only when this field is shown. Numbers are formatted using d3-format's syntax %{variable:d3-format}, for example "Price: %{y:$.2f}". https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format for details on the formatting syntax. Dates are formatted using d3-time-format's syntax %{variable|d3-time-format}, for example "Day: %{2019-01-01|%A}". https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format for details on the date formatting syntax. The variables available in hovertemplate are the ones emitted as event data described at this link https://plotly.com/javascript/plotlyjs-events/#event-data. Additionally, every attributes that can be specified per-point (the ones that are arrayOk: true) are available. variables initial, delta and final. Anything contained in tag <extra> is displayed in the secondary box, for example "{fullData.name}". To hide the secondary box completely, use an empty tag <extra></extra>.
  23. Sets hover text elements associated with each (x,y) pair. If a single string, the same string appears over all the data points. If an array of string, the items are mapped in order to the this trace's (x,y) coordinates. To be seen, trace hoverinfo must contain a "text" flag.
  24. Assigns id labels to each datum. These ids for object constancy of data points during animation. Should be an array of strings, not numbers or any other type.
  25. Sets the marker color of all increasing values.
  26. Sets the line color of all increasing values.
  27. Sets the line width of all increasing values.
  28. Determines if texts are kept at center or start/end points in textposition "inside" mode.
  29. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser will only be able to apply a font if it is available on the system which it operates. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the preference in which to apply fonts if they aren't available on the system. The Chart Studio Cloud (at https://chart-studio.plotly.com or on-premise) generates images on a server, where only a select number of fonts are installed and supported. These include "Arial", "Balto", "Courier New", "Droid Sans",, "Droid Serif", "Droid Sans Mono", "Gravitas One", "Old Standard TT", "Open Sans", "Overpass", "PT Sans Narrow", "Raleway", "Times New Roman".
  30. Sets the legend group for this trace. Traces part of the same legend group hide/show at the same time when toggling legend items.
  31. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser will only be able to apply a font if it is available on the system which it operates. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the preference in which to apply fonts if they aren't available on the system. The Chart Studio Cloud (at https://chart-studio.plotly.com or on-premise) generates images on a server, where only a select number of fonts are installed and supported. These include "Arial", "Balto", "Courier New", "Droid Sans",, "Droid Serif", "Droid Sans Mono", "Gravitas One", "Old Standard TT", "Open Sans", "Overpass", "PT Sans Narrow", "Raleway", "Times New Roman".
  32. Sets the title of the legend group.
  33. Sets the legend rank for this trace. Items and groups with smaller ranks are presented on top/left side while with "reversed"legend.traceorder` they are on bottom/right side. The default legendrank is 1000, so that you can use ranks less than 1000 to place certain items before all unranked items, and ranks greater than 1000 to go after all unranked items.
  34. Sets the width (in px or fraction) of the legend for this trace.
  35. An array containing types of values. By default the values are considered as 'relative'. However; it is possible to use 'total' to compute the sums. Also 'absolute' could be applied to reset the computed total or to declare an initial value where needed.
  36. Assigns extra meta information associated with this trace that can be used in various text attributes. Attributes such as trace name, graph, axis and colorbar title.text, annotation text rangeselector, updatemenues and sliders label text all support meta. To access the trace meta values in an attribute in the same trace, simply use %{meta[i]} where i is the index or key of the meta item in question. To access trace meta in layout attributes, use %{data[n[.meta[i]} where i is the index or key of the meta and n is the trace index.
  37. Shifts the position where the bar is drawn (in position axis units). In "group" barmode, traces that set "offset" will be excluded and drawn in "overlay" mode instead.
  38. Set several traces linked to the same position axis or matching axes to the same offsetgroup where bars of the same position coordinate will line up.
  39. Sets the opacity of the trace.
  40. Sets the orientation of the bars. With "v" ("h"), the value of the each bar spans along the vertical (horizontal).
  41. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser will only be able to apply a font if it is available on the system which it operates. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the preference in which to apply fonts if they aren't available on the system. The Chart Studio Cloud (at https://chart-studio.plotly.com or on-premise) generates images on a server, where only a select number of fonts are installed and supported. These include "Arial", "Balto", "Courier New", "Droid Sans",, "Droid Serif", "Droid Sans Mono", "Gravitas One", "Old Standard TT", "Open Sans", "Overpass", "PT Sans Narrow", "Raleway", "Times New Roman".
  42. Array containing integer indices of selected points. Has an effect only for traces that support selections. Note that an empty array means an empty selection where the unselected are turned on for all points, whereas, any other non-array values means no selection all where the selected and unselected styles have no effect.
  43. Determines whether or not an item corresponding to this trace is shown in the legend.
  44. Sets text elements associated with each (x,y) pair. If a single string, the same string appears over all the data points. If an array of string, the items are mapped in order to the this trace's (x,y) coordinates. If trace hoverinfo contains a "text" flag and "hovertext" is not set, these elements will be seen in the hover labels.
  45. Sets the angle of the tick labels with respect to the bar. For example, a tickangle of -90 draws the tick labels vertically. With "auto" the texts may automatically be rotated to fit with the maximum size in bars.
  46. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser will only be able to apply a font if it is available on the system which it operates. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the preference in which to apply fonts if they aren't available on the system. The Chart Studio Cloud (at https://chart-studio.plotly.com or on-premise) generates images on a server, where only a select number of fonts are installed and supported. These include "Arial", "Balto", "Courier New", "Droid Sans",, "Droid Serif", "Droid Sans Mono", "Gravitas One", "Old Standard TT", "Open Sans", "Overpass", "PT Sans Narrow", "Raleway", "Times New Roman".
  47. Determines which trace information appear on the graph. In the case of having multiple waterfalls, totals are computed separately (per trace).
  48. Specifies the location of the text. "inside" positions text inside, next to the bar end (rotated and scaled if needed). "outside" positions text outside, next to the bar end (scaled if needed), unless there is another bar stacked on this one, then the text gets pushed inside. "auto" tries to position text inside the bar, but if the bar is too small and no bar is stacked on this one the text is moved outside. If "none", no text appears.
  49. Template string used for rendering the information text that appear on points. Note that this will override textinfo. Variables are inserted using %{variable}, for example "y: %{y}". Numbers are formatted using d3-format's syntax %{variable:d3-format}, for example "Price: %{y:$.2f}". https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format for details on the formatting syntax. Dates are formatted using d3-time-format's syntax %{variable|d3-time-format}, for example "Day: %{2019-01-01|%A}". https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format for details on the date formatting syntax. Every attributes that can be specified per-point (the ones that are arrayOk: true) are available. variables initial, delta, final and label.
  50. Sets the marker color of all intermediate sums and total values.
  51. Sets the line color of all intermediate sums and total values.
  52. Sets the line width of all intermediate sums and total values.
  53. Controls persistence of some user-driven changes to the trace: constraintrange in parcoords traces, as well as some editable: true modifications such as name and colorbar.title. Defaults to layout.uirevision. Note that other user-driven trace attribute changes are controlled by layout attributes: trace.visible is controlled by layout.legend.uirevision, selectedpoints is controlled by layout.selectionrevision, and colorbar.(x|y) (accessible with config: {editable: true}) is controlled by layout.editrevision. Trace changes are tracked by uid, which only falls back on trace index if no uid is provided. So if your app can add/remove traces before the end of the data array, such that the same trace has a different index, you can still preserve user-driven changes if you give each trace a uid that stays with it as it moves.
  54. Determines whether or not this trace is visible. If "legendonly", the trace is not drawn, but can appear as a legend item (provided that the legend itself is visible).
  55. Sets the bar width (in position axis units).
  56. Alternate to x. Builds a linear space of x coordinates. Use with dx where x0 is the starting coordinate and dx the step.
  57. Sets the x coordinates.
  58. Sets a reference between this trace's x coordinates and a 2D cartesian x axis. If "x" (the default value), the x coordinates refer to layout.xaxis. If "x2", the x coordinates refer to layout.xaxis2, and so on.
  59. Sets the hover text formatting rulefor x using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format. And for dates see: https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format. We add two items to d3's date formatter: "%h" for half of the year as a decimal number as well as "%{n}f" for fractional seconds with n digits. For example, "2016-10-13 09:15:23.456" with tickformat "%H~%M~%S.%2f" would display "09~15~23.46"By default the values are formatted using xaxis.hoverformat.
  60. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the base for period positioning in milliseconds or date string on the x0 axis. When x0period is round number of weeks, the x0period0 by default would be on a Sunday i.e. 2000-01-02, otherwise it would be at 2000-01-01.
  61. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the period positioning in milliseconds or "M" on the x axis. Special values in the form of "M" could be used to declare the number of months. In this case n must be a positive integer.
  62. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the alignment of data points on the x axis.
  63. Alternate to y. Builds a linear space of y coordinates. Use with dy where y0 is the starting coordinate and dy the step.
  64. Sets the y coordinates.
  65. Sets a reference between this trace's y coordinates and a 2D cartesian y axis. If "y" (the default value), the y coordinates refer to layout.yaxis. If "y2", the y coordinates refer to layout.yaxis2, and so on.
  66. Sets the hover text formatting rulefor y using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format. And for dates see: https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format. We add two items to d3's date formatter: "%h" for half of the year as a decimal number as well as "%{n}f" for fractional seconds with n digits. For example, "2016-10-13 09:15:23.456" with tickformat "%H~%M~%S.%2f" would display "09~15~23.46"By default the values are formatted using yaxis.hoverformat.
  67. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the base for period positioning in milliseconds or date string on the y0 axis. When y0period is round number of weeks, the y0period0 by default would be on a Sunday i.e. 2000-01-02, otherwise it would be at 2000-01-01.
  68. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the period positioning in milliseconds or "M" on the y axis. Special values in the form of "M" could be used to declare the number of months. In this case n must be a positive integer.
  69. Only relevant when the axis type is "date". Sets the alignment of data points on the y axis.