Something nice and simple. In this Tableau quick tip, we are going to walk through the creation of a Step Line Chart within Tableau in 5 minutes or less.
Data
We will start by loading the following 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.
Calculated Fields
We only need a single Calculated Field for our Data Visualisation.
Color
IF SUM([Sales]) > LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]),-1) THEN
"Up"
ELSEIF SUM([Sales]) < LOOKUP(SUM([Sales]),-1) THEN
"Down"
ELSE
"No Movement"
ENDWith 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 Filter Shelf and select 2018
- Drag Order Date onto the Column Shelf
- Right-click on this pill and convert this to a Discrete Month
- Drag Sales onto the Rows Shelf
- Click on the Path Mark and change the Line Type to Step
If all goes well, you should now see the following:
We will now add our indicators.
- Drag Sales onto the Rows Shelf
- In the Sum(Sales) 2 Marks Panel (second Sales Mark)
- Change the Mark Type to Shape, click on the Shape Mark and select the Filled Diamond
- Drag Color onto the Color Mark
- Click on the Color Mark and set the following colors:
- Up to Green
- Down to Red
- No Moment to Grey
- Click on the Color Mark and set the following colors:
- Right-click on the Second SUM(Sales) pill and select Dual Axis
- Right-click on the Sales Axis and select Synchronize Axis
You should now see the following:
We will now adjust the cosmetics:
- Set the Date Format to abbreviation and rotate the date header
- Edit the Tooltips
- Format the Sales values
You will want to have something like the following:
and boom, we are done… I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and as always, you can find this data visualization on Tableau Public at https://public.tableau.com/profile/toan.hoang#!/vizhome/StepLineChartwithIndicators/StepLineChartwithIndicators
Note: try out animations, it is super cool.
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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