Tableau QT: Sin-Dumbbell Chart

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

Social Network	Path	Value
Facebook	1	572
Facebook	181	572
Twitter	1	630
Twitter	181	630
Medium	1	210
Medium	181	210
Tumblr	1	120
Tumblr	181	120
LinkedIn	1	360
LinkedIn	181	360
YouTube	1	415
YouTube	181	415

Note: we require path and duplicate lines for densification. See our tutorial on Data Densification for more information. Click here

Calculated Fields

We will start by creating the following calculated fields.

Path (bin)

• Right-click on Path.
  • Go to Create, and select Bins…
  • In the Edit Bins window:
    • Set New field name to Path (bin).
    • Set Size of bins to 0.1.
    • Click OK.

Index

INDEX()-1

TC_Value

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Value]))

TC_Max Value

WINDOW_MAX(MAX([Value]))

TC_Percentage

[TC_Value]/[TC_Max Value]

X

[Index]*[TC_Percentage]

Y

SIN(RADIANS([X]))

Size

IF [Index] = WINDOW_MAX([Index]) THEN
    2
ELSEIF [Index] = 1 THEN
    1
ELSE
    0
END

Now that we have created our Calculated Fields, we will build our Worksheet.

Worksheet

Now that we have our Calculated Fields and Bin object, let us create our Worksheet:

• Change the Mark Type to Line.
• Drag Social Network to Color.
• Drag Path (bin) to Columns.
  • Right-click on the object and ensure that Show Missing Values is checked.
  • Drag this object onto the Path Mark.
• Drag X onto Columns.
  • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).
• Drag Y onto Rows.
  • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).

If all goes well, you should have the following:

Let us make a small ammendment to the X Table Calculation:

• Right-click on X in the Columns, and select Edit Table Calculation.
• In Nested Calculations, choose TC_Max Value.
  • Tick Social Network.
  • Ensure that Social Network is below Path (bin).
• Drag Size onto the Size Mark.
  • Right-click on the object, go to Compute Using and select Path (bin).

You should now have the following:

Now we will adjust the cosmetics:

• Remove Grid Lines.
• Remove Zero Lines.
• Fix the Y-Axis to be between -3 and 3.
• Adjust the Size.
• Adjust the Color.
• Add a Tooltip.
• Hide the X and Y Headers.
• Drag Value onto Label and adjust.

You should hopefully end up with the following:

Note: You can use the following social media colors by copying this into your Preferences.tps file:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<workbook>
	<preferences>
          <color-palette name="Social Media" type="regular" >
               <color>#ea4c89</color>
               <color>#3b5998</color>
               <color>#ff0084</color>
               <color>#dc4e41</color>
               <color>#517fa4</color>
               <color>#0077b5</color>
               <color>#00ab6b</color>
               <color>#40a4c4</color>
               <color>#bd081c</color>
               <color>#35465c</color>
               <color>#55acee</color>
               <color>#1ab7ae</color>
               <color>#b31217</color>
          </color-palette>
     </preferences>
</workbook>

and boom, we are done with this Quick Tip. You can find my Sin-Dumbbell Chart on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/Sin-DumbbellCharts/Sin-DumbbellChart

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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• Creating Bespoke Data Visualizations (Udemy)
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