There are cases where we have bar charts whose centerline is not zero, for example when we’ve indexed a measure to have a base of 100. Here’s an example where the SUM(Sales) for each product Category is indexed to the average sales per Category:
What happens when we want the bars to start at 100 and then go up or down from there, like this?
Read on for how to build this in Tableau! Continue reading
This section covers a whole bunch of chart types that are not part of Show Me, but can be built in Tableau, along with some notes on how to get existing charts to work more like I want them to. There’s also a whole section on the Path Shelf.
Be sure to check out the following sources of material on the Tableau Community:
put multiple measures on same row/column Then choose Dual Axes (synchronize if necessary) Then on the Marks card, click on the upper-right drop-down arrow to choose Multiple Mark Types
Showing Summary and Detail Together | Tableau Software
http://onlinehelp.tableausoftware.com/current/pro/online/en-us/help.htm#multiplemeasures_combocharts.html
On blood transfusion data, getting a table calc to have connected points for a line chart:
Using a set to get the path shelf to draw things properly: http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/136628#136628 From Think Data Thursday #4, 9/13/12 Path Shelf needs specific structure of data. In particular, origin/destination need to be in the same column, not separate columns. More on Path shelf From http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/188861#188861 If you’re trying to just get the data together, try these resources: http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/using-path-shelf-pattern-analysis The key bit that is not talked about in that is that if you want to use Tableau’s built-in geocoding to get latitude and longitude, you need to change them to aggregate fields like MIN(State), this forum post has the details: http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/109399 Finally, I’ve attached a workbook that demonstrates this. point to point mapping.twbx
http://www.tableausoftware.com/community/support/kb/barsintooltips http://www.thedatastudio.co.uk/blog/the-data-studio-blog/andy-cotgreave/charts-in-a-tooltip http://www.tableausoftware.com/about/blog/2010/09/using-bar-charts-tooltips Bullet charts: http://www.freakalytics.com/2011/01/29/enhanced-bullet-charts/ Tableau control charts: http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/knowledge-base/control-charts http://dataremixed.com/2011/10/how-to-make-control-charts-with-tableau/ http://sanpelegrino.tumblr.com/ funky pie charts: http://twitpic.com/72r2jp Treemaps http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap/ Box plots: http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/knowledge-base/box-plot-analog
http://www.datarevelations.com/likert-scales-the-final-word.htmlhttp://www.datarevelations.com/using-tableau-to-visualize-survey-data-part-1.htmlhttp://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/117982 – putting many questions all together to see the spread
More on surveys
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/charting-survey-results/
Nice post about ordering & annotating data:
http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/2013/09/logic-in-order.html
http://www.thedatastudio.co.uk/blog/the-data-studio-blog/andy-cotgreave/panel-charts-in-tableau http://www.datarevelations.com/the-likert-question-question.html In Tableau, panel charts really need the X and Y axes to have the same values Joe’s version: http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/181493#181493
http://boraberan.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/trellis-charts-with-tableau-8/
http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/b-eye/tablelens.pdf
Make sure that both fields have the same datatype. One way to check to see what data type Tableau is recognizing a field as is to open the calculated field box, select the desired field and in the yellow box at the bottom right will tell what type of field it is. Note that datatype and number format are independent! See this thread on what can happen when you try mark labels on a dual axis chart without synchronized axes: http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/114593
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/ParallelCoordinatesExample/ParallelCoordinatesExample http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/forum/topic/parallel-coordinates-plot http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/b-eye/visual_multivariate_analysis.pdf http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/b-eye/parallel_coordinates.pdf
Using measure values and unstacking marks to create the overlapping bars, dual axis to create the line. http://vizwiz.blogspot.com/2011/08/tableau-tip-7-easy-steps-to-create.html ![image[78]](http://drawingwithnumbers.artisart.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/image78.png)
calendar view http://www.tableausoftware.com/blog/calendar-data-visualization waterfall charts http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/107514?start=0&tstart=0 Using Custom Shapes http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/116844 https://www.interworks.com/blogs/iwbiteam/2012/01/27/using-custom-shapes-tableau cumulative distributions (pareto chart) http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/cumulative-distributions 
Grouped Bar chart (like what Excel does)
Joe Mako variation on this using Custom SQL that would allow for multiple lines, I think: http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/132454#132454 Also called side by side stacked bars Stem and Leaf plots http://www.datadrivenconsulting.com/2011/04/stem-and-leaf-plots-sorta-in-tableau/ 
Ternary charts http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/179240#179240 
making more interesting data-rich vizzes: 1. duplicate a measure (usually as rows) 2. do multiple mark types 3. aggregate or disaggregate the measure as needed 4. turn on dual axis 5. synchronize axes examples – putting sales by customer circles on a bar chart of sales by state putting pie charts on a chloropleth map putting an overall average on a per unit average from TCC11 – JediTricks video Triangle charts http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/178976#178976 
Joe Mako hack in Tableau 5 using reshaped data to draw lines as points, bars, and a line http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/BarLineandDot/Example Treemaps Treemaps in Tableau? can be done. Waterfall charts http://www.alansmitheepresents.org/2011/02/waterfall-and-funnel-charts.html
Kaplan-Meier Survival Curves
http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/216551#216551
Radial Chart
http://interworks.co.uk/tableau/radial-bar-chart/
[loop category=”wikicontent” tag=”charts,chart-types,bar-charts,Kaplan-Meier,Likert,Likert-scales,Marks-Card,panel-charts,trellis-charts,Path-Shelf,Show-Me,small-multiples,survival-curves,ternary-charts,tooltips,waterfall-charts”]
[field title] – Added [field date]
[content]
[/loop]
[/loop]
Andy Cotgreave at the Data Studio w/lots of cool options:
http://www.thedatastudio.co.uk/blog/text-label-beyond-default
Putting text at the left/bottom of bars (by creating another header)
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/Text-labelledbars/Horizontal
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/Text-labelledbars/Vertical
Putting text at left/bottom of bars (by creating a dual axis w/ a zero field)
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/TextLabelsInsideBars/InsideBarHorizontal
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/TextLabelsInsideBars/OutsideBarVertical
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/TextLabelsInsideBars/InsideBarVertical
Putting text in center of bars
Option 1 – make it a Gantt Bar (see conditional formatting)
Option 2 – Joe Mako’s hack From http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/184379#184379
See scoreboard for forum jm edit.twbx
Stacked bar charts can put the mark labels in the middle of the bars, so we can use Measure Values with the measure of interest and a measure that returns Null to create the stacked bars. The Null measure won’t show anything, while the measure’s label will be in the proper location.
The measure that returns Null needs a formula like IF 1=0 THEN 0 END, if just Null is used then Tableau forces that to be a True/False dimension, and that won’t work.
Measure Names must be in the level of detail of the view (LoD Shelf, Colors Shelf, etc.) on the Level of Detail Shelf for this to work, that’s part of what forces Tableau to properly stack the bars.
length of bars is whatever is on columns or rows shelf (stacked or unstacked) Size shelf determines thickness of bars size slider adjusts thickness mark label is pinned to the end of the bar
starting position of bars is whatever is on columns or rows shelf Size shelf determines length of bars Size slider changes thickness mark labels can be set to beginning, middle, or end of bar Note in Tableau v6.1 the mark label alignment has only one value for all measures with Gantt Bar marks on the same chart. In Tableau v7, the mark label alignment can vary for each measure.
controlling thickness in Gantt bars – some ideas
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/112438
one thought is to use a line chart (w/path shelf) to draw lots of lines where the gantt bars would be, and that would enable control of the line thickness as well as length
http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/180913#180913
workbooks are (Joe’s uses Custom SQL to duplicate data sources):
Gantt Graph – Margin Walk Viz jtd edit.twbx
Gantt Graph – Margin Walk Viz jm edit.twbx
[loop category=”wikicontent” tag=”bar-charts,Gantt-Charts,Gantt,bars,labels”]
[field title] – Added [field date]
[content]
[/loop]
[/loop]
This is a post about getting the output you want, despite what Tableau thinks.
This is a post about making Tableau do what Excel can do (whether it’s a good idea or not).
This is a post about gaining better understanding of dimensions, measures, continuous, and discrete.
This is a post about putting bars and lines on the same chart. Continue reading