Area, bar, column, and line graphs are conceptually very similar. They differ only in how they physically represent the data values—whether they use areas, bars, columns, or lines to represent the values. All other properties are the same. Typically you use area and line graphs to display continuous data and bar and column graphs to display noncontinuous data.
The only difference between a bar graph and a column graph is the orientation. In column graphs, values are plotted along the y axis and categories are plotted along the x axis. In bar graphs, values are plotted along the x axis and categories are plotted along the y axis.
