When to use Value Columns Instead of a Secondary Column

It may seem intuitive to always use a Secondary category when each record represents a separate value because Secondary categories give the best angle to manipulate data. However, Secondary categories do not allow for column properties that the Value columns support, such as coloring individual lines or bars.

An example of when to use multiple Value columns instead of a Secondary column would be for data within a finite number of possible states. For instance, if there is a record that denotes Pass or Fail, there are only ever going to be two individual series (the Pass series and the Fail series). If a view is created to return the following data, “Green” can be the color for Pass and “Red” for Fail. This kind of manipulation can only be performed at the Value column level.