Toan Hoang

Drawing Radar Charts in Tableau

In this tutorial, we are going to have some fun and draw two overlapping Radar Charts, use transparency, and show dynamic labels. The main thing here is to have some fun and check out some of the features of Tableau, so I hope you do enjoy it.

Note: As always never choose a data visualisation type and try to fit your data into it, instead, understand your data and choose the best visualization for your data consumers.

Data

Load the following data into Tableau Desktop / Public.

RegionMetricValue
EuropeSales Revenue1,500,000
EuropeOperating Cost500,000
EuropeProfit1,000,000
EuropeQuantity Sold80,000
EuropeAverage Discount10
EuropeTotal Headcount200
EuropeSales Headcount80
APACSales Revenue1,000,000
APACOperating Cost400,000
APACProfit600,000
APACQuantity Sold50,000
APACAverage Discount8
APACTotal Headcount220
APACSales Headcount150

Calculated Fields

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

Prefix

IF 
    [Metric] = "Sales Revenue"
    OR [Metric] = "Operating Cost"
    OR [Metric] = "Profit"
THEN
    "£"
ELSE
    ""
END

Suffix

IF [Metric] = "Average Discount" THEN
    "%"
ELSE
    ""
END

Note: As we have different numeric types in our data, we are going to manually add the current prefix, or the percentage suffix.

Index

INDEX()-1

TC_Max Value

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Value]))

TC_Metric Count

WINDOW_COUNT(COUNTD([Metric]))

Degrees

360/[TC_Metric Count]

TC_Value

MAX([Value])/[TC_Max Value]

Note: As we are dealing with various different numeric types and hugely different scales, We want to plot the percentage of the Maximum value based on the individual metric. That way the maximum distance from the center will always be 1.

X

SIN(RADIANS([Index]*[Degrees]))*[TC_Value]

Y

COS(RADIANS([Index]*[Degrees]))*[TC_Value]

X (Background)

SIN(RADIANS([Index]*[Degrees]))*1.5

Y (Background)

COS(RADIANS([Index]*[Degrees]))*1.5

Now that we have our Calculated Fields created, let us start creating our Worksheet.

Worksheet

We are going to build two worksheets and make them overlap each other. So to build our first worksheet:

If you have completed the above you should see the following:

Now we are going to finish off the first worksheet by:

If all goes according to plan we have completed our first Worksheet.

Now we are going to create a new worksheet for the background labels.

You should have the following.

Now we will finish off our visualisation by creating a new Dashboard and, using floating type, dragging the Labels Worksheet onto the dashboard followed by the Radar Worksheet.

Note: Please use the Layout to size and position your worksheets to be exactly the same size and have the same X and Y coordinates.

Show the Legend and Filters and you should now see the following:

and boom, we have created an interactive Radar Chart where we can add or remove metric values and see our Radar change. Now take a moment to think about what we have done, and more interesting, if there are any use cases where this may be valuable to you.

5 Metrics

3 Metrics

Region Highlighted

You can see and interact with my visualisation on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/RadarCharts_2/RadarChart

Summary

I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, if so, please do share this article with fellow Tableau addicts and spread the love. Do let me know if you experienced any issues recreating this Visualisation, and as always, please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @Tableau_Magic.

If you like our work, do consider supporting us on Patreon, and for supporting us, we will give you early access to tutorials, exclusive videos, as well as access to current and future courses on Udemy:

Also, do be sure to check out our various courses:

Exit mobile version