Graph Showing Quantities of Multiple Categories for Multiple Years

Question

I have three sets of data:

+--------+------+------+------+
| Apples |      |      |      |
+--------+------+------+------+
|        | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Jan    |   40 |   36 |   44 |
| Feb    |   38 |   57 |   68 |
| Mar    |   40 |   17 |   19 |
| Apr    |   27 |   49 |      |
| May    |   44 |   51 |      |
| Jun    |   36 |   74 |      |
| Jul    |   34 |   40 |      |
| Aug    |   10 |   38 |      |
| Sep    |   22 |   59 |      |
| Oct    |   62 |   61 |      |
| Nov    |   43 |   67 |      |
| Dec    |   49 |   75 |      |
+--------+------+------+------+

+---------+------+------+------+
| Oranges |      |      |      |
+---------+------+------+------+
|         | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Jan     |   23 |   31 |   46 |
| Feb     |   13 |   27 |   19 |
| Mar     |   23 |   23 |   43 |
| Apr     |   24 |   26 |      |
| May     |   17 |   34 |      |
| Jun     |   14 |   48 |      |
| Jul     |   15 |   22 |      |
| Aug     |    9 |   44 |      |
| Sep     |   35 |   51 |      |
| Oct     |   21 |   34 |      |
| Nov     |   32 |   54 |      |
| Dec     |   48 |   33 |      |
+---------+------+------+------+

+---------+------+------+------+
| Peaches |      |      |      |
+---------+------+------+------+
|         | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Jan     |   13 |   11 |   35 |
| Feb     |   11 |   13 |   21 |
| Mar     |   11 |   25 |   19 |
| Apr     |   12 |   31 |      |
| May     |   12 |   19 |      |
| Jun     |   11 |   29 |      |
| Jul     |    2 |   22 |      |
| Aug     |    0 |   32 |      |
| Sep     |   10 |   26 |      |
| Oct     |   12 |   20 |      |
| Nov     |    6 |   26 |      |
| Dec     |   14 |   40 |      |
+---------+------+------+------+

Is there an elegant way to show all of this data on a single graph? I want to show how this data is affected by month of the year.

I have created a timeline where each fruit is a single line and I highlight the month of interest for each year. However, I feel that some context is lost when the data is not stacked.

I realize that this may fall into a category of "too much data for one graph," but wanted to get some opinions before splitting it into three separate charts.

Answer 1

I recommend using a grouped stacked bar chart, or grouped stacked column chart.

See my example for how you might tackle this.

Answer 2

If I understand the question correctly then a stacked graph ought to be what you're looking for.

And with a little effort (from a front-end developer using HighChart or something similar) you can let the user change the view as needed.

For example a set of toggle buttons can let the user compare years or see only apples and bananas for a particular year. Or the user could remove apples and compare bananas with cherries.

An example of a stacked chart (pulled quickly from a google search) is shown below.