This is a Quick Tip on how to build Arrow Bar Charts in Tableau, so less reading and more jumping in. We are going to spend 5 minutes or less building our Arrow Bar charts.
Data
Load the following data into Tableau Desktop / Public.
| Canadian Province | 2017 Population (Millions) |
| British Columbia | 4.817 |
| Manitoba | 1.338 |
| New Brunswick * | 0.754 |
| Nova Scotia | 0.953 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 0.529 |
| Ontario | 14.19 |
| Prince Edward Island | 0.152 |
| Québec | 8.394 |
| Saskatchewan | 1.164 |
| Alberta | 4.286 |
* New Brunswick figures are for 2014.
Worksheet
- Drag Canadian Province onto Rows.
- Drag 2017 Population (Millions) onto Columns, Twice.
- Right-click on the second 2017 Population (Millions) in the Columns Shelf and select Dual Axis.
- In the Canvas:
- Right-click on the 2017 Population (Millions) and select Synchronized Axis.
- Double-click on the 2017 Population (Millions) header to open the Edit Axis window.
- Select Fixed, Fixed Start and set the value to 0.
- In the All Mark Panel:
- Drag Canadian Province onto Color.
- In the SUM(2017 Population (Millions)) Mark Panel:
- Change the Mark Type to Bar.
- Change the Size to be 75%.
- In the SUM(2017 Population (Millions))(2) Mark Panel:
- Change the Mark Type to Shape.
- Click on Shape and select the Diamond, bottom left icon.
- Change the Size of the shape to be around 37% to match the size of the bar. Adjust as necessary.
- Change the Mark Type to Shape.
Now we need to adjust the visualisation by:
- Editing tooltips.
- Editing colours.
- Remove gridlines.
- Hide headers.
- Add the value to the Column header.
And you should then end up with something like the following:
Note: This is just a Bar Chart with an arrow tip to give your bar charts a different look.
Summary
I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. 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.
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