Line Chart Maker

When you would use this

A line chart says that the points are a sequence and that what happens between them is meaningful. That is a stronger claim than a bar chart makes, and it is the reason the order matters. So nothing is sorted. The order you paste is the order along the axis, because only you know whether the labels are months, versions or experiments, and sorting them alphabetically would put April before January and produce a confident nonsense. Area style fills between the line and zero. That implies an accumulating quantity, so it suits a total and misleads for a rate or a temperature, where zero is not a meaningful floor. Both are one click apart rather than one being the default. The axis follows the same rules as every chart here: round steps, and a zero baseline whenever the data is positive. Everything is drawn in the page and downloaded from it, as SVG for the web or PNG for anywhere that will not take one.

Questions

Does it sort my data?

No, and that is deliberate. The order you paste is the order along the axis, because a line chart's x axis is a sequence and only you know what it means. Sorting alphabetically would put April before January.

When should I use area instead of line?

Area fills between the line and zero, so it suggests a quantity accumulating. Use it for a total over time. For a rate, a temperature or anything where zero is not meaningful, a plain line is the honest choice, since the filled region would imply a magnitude that is not there.

What happens with a single data point?

It is drawn in the middle. There is no line to draw through one point, and dividing the width by zero intervals is how a chart tool produces a blank image with no explanation.