This is a Quick Tip on how to build a Ratings Chart in Tableau, so less reading and more jumping in. We are going to spend 5 minutes or less building our Ratings chart in Tableau.

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.

ProductPathRating
ACER XC-885 Intel® Core™ i5 Desktop PC14.5
ACER XC-885 Intel® Core™ i5 Desktop PC54.5
ACER C20-720 19.5″ Intel® Celeron®14
ACER C20-720 19.5″ Intel® Celeron®54
ACER Aspire C24-865 23.8″ Intel® Core™ i514
ACER Aspire C24-865 23.8″ Intel® Core™ i554
ACER Nitro N50-600 Intel® Core™ i5+ GTX 105013.5
ACER Nitro N50-600 Intel® Core™ i5+ GTX 105053.5
ACER TC-885 Intel® Core™ i5+ Desktop PC13.5
ACER TC-885 Intel® Core™ i5+ Desktop PC53.5

This data is from the PC World website, as I am looking for a new desktop, the rating system inspired me.

Calculations

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

Path (bin)

  • Right-click on Path, go to Create and select Bin…
    • Set New field name to Path (bin).
    • Set Size of bins to 1.
    • Click Ok.

Index

INDEX()

TC_Rating

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Rating]))

TC_Shape

IF [Index] <= [TC_Rating] THEN
    1
ELSE
    IF [Index]-0.5 >= [TC_Rating] AND [Index] < [TC_Rating]+1 THEN
        0.5
    ELSE
        NULL
    END
END

TC_Size

IIF(ISNULL([TC_Shape]),0,1)

Now that we have the Calculated Fields created, let us start building our dashboard.

Worksheet

To start building our dashboard:

  • Drag Path (bin) onto Columns.
  • Drag Product onto Rows.
  • Change Mark Type to Shape.
  • Drag TC_Shape onto the Shape Mark.
    • Click on the Shape Mark.
    • In Select Shape Palette select Ratings.
    • For 1, assign the Full Red Circle.
    • For 0.5, assign the Half-Filled Red Circle.
  • Drag TC_Size onto the Size Mark.
  • Drag TC_Size onto the Color Mark.
    • Right-click on the object and change to Discrete.
    • Click on the Color Mark.
      • Set 0 to White.
      • Set 1 to Red.

If all has gone well, you should see the following:

Now we can adjust the visualisation by:

  • Dragging TC_Rating onto the Rows, and changing this to a Discrete.
  • Format all Text.
  • Hide all Headers.
  • Adjust the Size.

And you should hopefully end up with the following:

and boom, you can experiment with a variety of shapes and include quarters as well as half values. However, we are done and you can find my QT Ratings Dashboard on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/RatingsChart_0/RatingsChart

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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2 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Toan,
    The daisy chart,shape bar chart and ratings chart , you have defined the path . Wanted to understand how you are defining the path.

    Thanks,
    Nimisha Philip

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