Create a Radial Column Chart (Variation)

I wanted to have some fun and build up a Polar Chart, however, I had an accident and decided to run with it, and this is the resulting data visualisation. I hope you enjoy this one.

Note: This is an alternative type of data visualisation, and sometimes pushed for by clients. Please always look at best practices for data visualisations before deploying this into production.

Data

We will start by loading the Sample Superstore data into Tableau Desktop / Tableau Public.

Note: If you have Tableau Desktop, you can use the Sample data source, but if you are using Tableau Public, download and load the following data source.

Once your data is loaded into Tableau, right-click on the data source and click on Edit Data Source… with the Data Source Editor open, paste the following:

Path,Distance
100,1
0,1
100,0
0,0

Note: If you are using Tableau 2020.2 or great i.e. have access to new Relationship Model, you will need to double-click on the originally pasted data source to open up before pasting in the Path Data.

You should get an error as there is no joining column, however, click on Add new join clause, go to Create Join Calculation, type 1 and click OK. Do this for the right-hand side as well. Ensure that you have Inner join selected and you should see the following:

Calculated Fields

With our data set loaded into Tableau, we are going to create the following Bins, Parameters and Calculated Fields:

@Distance from Center Parameter

• Set Name as @Distance from Center
• Set Data type as Interger
• Set Current value as 5

@Line Weight Parameter

• Set Name as @Line Weight
• Set Data type as Float
• Set Current value as 0.01
• Set Allowable values as Range
  • Set Minimum to 0.01
  • Set Maximum to 0.1
  • Set Step size to 0.01

@Path Factor Parameter

• Set Name as @Path Factor
• Set Data type as Integer
• Set Current value as 20
• Set Allowable values as Range
  • Set Minimum to 5
  • Set Maximum to 100

@Spacing Parameter

• Set Name as @Spacing
• Set Data type as Integer
• Set Current value as 20
• Set Allowable values as Range
  • Set Minimum to 20
  • Set Maximum to 100
  • Set Step size as 10

Path (bin)

• Right-click on Path, go to Create and select Bins…
• In the Edit Bins dialogue window:
  • Set New field name to Path (bin)
  • Set Size of bins to @Path Factor
  • Click Ok

Distance (bin)

• Right-click on Distance, go to Create and select Bins…
• In the Edit Bins dialogue window:
  • Set New field name to Path (bin)
  • Set Size of bins to @Line Weight
  • Click Ok

Order Month

DATEPART('month',[Order Date])

Index (Distance)

INDEX()

Index (Path)

(INDEX()-1) * [@Path Factor]

Step Size

3.6 / 12 * (100-[@Spacing]) / 100

TC_Order Month

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Order Month]))

TC_Sales

WINDOW_SUM(SUM([Sales]))/4

TC_Total Sales

WINDOW_SUM(SUM([Sales]))/4

TC_Percentage

[TC_Sales] / [TC_Total Sales]

TC_Starting Point

(([TC_Order Month]-1)*360/12)

X

SIN(RADIANS(([Index (Path)]*[Step Size])+[TC_Starting Point]))*([Index (Distance)]+[@Distance from Center])

Y

COS(RADIANS(([Index (Path)]*[Step Size])+[TC_Starting Point]))*([Index (Distance)]+[@Distance from Center])

TC_Size

IF ([Index (Distance)]-1) / WINDOW_MAX([Index (Distance)]-1) <= WINDOW_MAX([TC_Percentage]) THEN
    1
ELSE
    0
END

TC_Color

IF ([Index (Distance)]-1) / WINDOW_MAX([Index (Distance)]-1) <= [TC_Percentage] THEN
    WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Order Month]))
ELSE
    NULL
END

TC_Filter

IF ([Index (Distance)]-1) / WINDOW_MAX([Index (Distance)]-1) <= WINDOW_MAX([TC_Percentage]) THEN
    TRUE
ELSE
    FALSE
END

With this done, let us start creating our data visualisation.

Worksheet

We will now build our worksheet:

• Change the Mark Type to Line
• Drag Order Date onto the Filters Shelf and Filter on 2018
• Drag Order Month onto the Detail Mark
• Drag Distance (bin) onto the Columns Shelf
  • Right-click on this pill and ensure that Show Missing Values is selected
  • Drag this pill onto the Detail Mark
• Drag Path (bin) onto the Columns Shelf
  • Right-click on this pill and ensure that Show Missing Values is selected
  • Drag this pill onto the Detail Mark
• Drag X onto the Columns Shelf
  • Right-click on this pill, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin)
• Drag Y onto the Rows Shelf
  • Right-click on this pill, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin)

You should now see the following:

We are not going to end the Table Calculations for the X and Y objects, now be careful as this is quite delicate:

• Right-click on the X-pill and select Edit Table Calculation…
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Order Month
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Path)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) is selected
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Distance)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Distance (bin) is selected
• Right-click on the Y-pill and select Edit Table Calculation…
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Order Month
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Path)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) is selected
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Distance)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Distance (bin) is selected

We should now see the following (this is pretty cool already, but we are only just getting there):

Now we are going to add a little colour and sizing:

• Drag TC_Color onto the Colour Mark
• Right-click on the TC_Color pill and select Edit Table Calculation…
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Color
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Distance)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Distance (bin) is both selected
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Total Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin), Distance (bin) and Orders Month are selected; ensure that Path (bin) is on top, Order Month is on Bottom
• Drag TC_Size onto the Size Mark
• Right-click on the TC_Color pill and select Edit Table Calculation…
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Color
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Distance)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Distance (bin) is both selected
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Total Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin), Distance (bin) and Orders Month are selected; ensure that Path (bin) is on top, Order Month is on Bottom

You want something like the following:

Yes, it looks a little funny now, but don’t worry, the last step is coming:

• Draft TC_Filter onto the Detail Mark
• Right-click on the TC_Filter pill and select Edit Table Calculation…
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Filter
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin), Distance (bin) and Orders Month are selected; ensure that Path (bin) is on top, Order Month is on Bottom
  • In Nested Calculations select Index (Distance)
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Distance (bin) is both selected
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin) and Distance (bin) are both selected and that Path (bin) is on top
  • In Nested Calculations select TC_Total Sales
    • In Compute Using select Specific Dimensions
    • Ensure that Path (bin), Distance (bin) and Orders Month are selected; ensure that Path (bin) is on top, Order Month is on Bottom
• Now that we have adjusted the TC_Filter pill, drag this onto the Filters Shelf and select True

We should now have the following:

The last step is to adjust the cosmetics:

• Hide the Axis Headers
• Hide the Grid Lines
• Hide the Zero Lines
• Adjust the Sizes
• Adjust the Colours
• Adjust the Tool Tips

We should now have our final data visualisation:

Extra Credit: Try changing the Mark Type to Circles or Lines, just for fun

and boom, we are done! I hope you enjoyed creating this data visualization and learned some cool techniques as well. As always, you can find this data visualisation on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/RadialColumnChartVariation/RadialColumnChartVariation

Summary

I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it and as always do share the love. Do let me know if you experienced any issues recreating this Visualization, and as always, please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @Tableau_Magic. Do also remember to tag me in your work if you use this tutorial.

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