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Tableau Chart Types

Introduction to Tableau Chart Types

Tableau is a powerful tool to create different types of charts. It is done automatically using visual query language. There are 24 different types of chart available in tableau. Charts are created by using measures and dimensions we choose.

Not all chart works in one way. When we select geography like state, country, etc show me will prompt for Map chart. When we work with Dates, the Lines chart will be suggested.

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Note: Shortcut Key (Dimension/Measure +Ctrl)

If we select Dimension first then Measure, Bar char will appear by default.

If we select Measure First then dimension, we get a textual representation of the data.

Types of Tableau Chart

Here are the 12 different types of Tableau Chart Types given below.

1. Area Chart

Steps to Create 

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Under Dimension select Order Date ->Ctrl->Under Measure select Sales.
  • Go to the Show Me (user can see chart)->select chart.
  • Go to the Marks Card and click the Mark Type drop-down and select Area.
  • Go to the Columns->select Year(Order Date)->drop-down->select Month.

Tableau Chart Types area chart

2. Bar Chart

Steps to Create 

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Under Dimension select Category ->Drag to column->Under Measure select Profit->Drag to rows.
  • Under Marks type ->Select Marks ->Select Bar.
  • Under Dimension select Region->Drag to left side of the Profit.
  • Under Dimension select Ship Mode->Drag to color, we will get different ship mode in each region.

Tableau Chart Types Bar chart

  • We can view data as per region, Drag Region to Filters->select region we wish.

Tableau Chart Types Bar chart 2

3. Box and Whisker Plots

Steps to Create 

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drag Segment dimensions to columns.
  • Drag the Discount measure to rows.

Hint: -Tableau creates a Bar Graph by default because we have drag dimension to columns and measure to rows.

  • Drag the Region dimension to columns and drop it to the right of the segment.
  • Click Show Me (right side of the toolbar), select the box-and-whisker plot chart.
  • Drag Region from the Marks back to columns, to the right of the segment.
  • To disaggregate data, select Analysis-> Aggregate Measures. (data is aggregated by default in tableau).
  • Click the Swap button to swap the axes.
  • Right-click on the bottom axis and select Edit Reference Line.
  • In the edit reference line, fill the drop-down list, select an interesting color scheme.

Tableau Chart Types Box and Whisker Plots

Edit Reference Line

Tableau Chart Types Edit Reference Line

4. Bullet Chart

(we can use bullet charts to show the performance between measures.

Two measures can be compared.)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Select “Analysis” present in the menu bar.
  • Select “Create Calculated Field” from the list.

Tableau Chart Types Bullet Chart

  • The calculated Field window will open. Name it.
  • Type the estimated value of the measure.

Tableau Chart Types Bullet Chart 2

  • Select Profit and Profit1(calculated field). Then select show me, it will show you a bullet graph.
  • Select a bullet graph.

Tableau Chart Types Bullet Chart 3

Tableau Chart Types Bullet Chart 4

5. Scatter Plot

(when we add two Measures in both x and y-axis, scatter plot gets created)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drag Profit into columns and Sales into Rows. This will create a scatter plot by default.

Tableau Chart Types scatter plot chart

  • Drag “Sub-category” into color (Marks card), It creates a scatter plot which will show a relationship between sales and profit for each subcategory.

Tableau Chart Types scatter plot chart 2

6. Pie Chart

(Chart shows a proportion of whole)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drag Quantity measure to columns and State dimension to rows.

The bar chart will be displayed by default.

  • Click on “show me”, select Pie chart.
  • Before selecting the Pie chart.

pie chart 1

  • After selecting a Pie chart, Drag Region dimension to Label (we can see details).

pie chart 2

  • Drag State into Filter, select only states you want.

pie chart 3

7. Bubble Chart

(visualizes dimensions and measures in the form of bubbles. Size of bubble visualizes the size of dimension and color of bubble determine as per measures)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Select Product Name(dimension), press Ctrl select Quantity (measures) and select “Show Me” and click “Bubble chart “.

Due to the large volume of product name, I have dragged the product name to filter and selected product name as per my requirement.

bubble chart 1

8. Line Chart

(This chart is useful when we want to see trends over time.)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drag Order Date dimension to columns, Sales and Quantity measure to rows. Sales for two years is different. (image is shown below).

line chart 1

  • When there are multiple measures in rows, it is difficult to measure. Drag measure(quantity) onto the sales in a horizontal bar.

line chart 2

  • The result will be changed. Have a look at the Right Side of the worksheet “Measure Names”.

line chart 3

  • Click on YEAR(Order Date) and from the drop-down, select Month.

line chart 4

9. Histogram

(It shows the distribution of numerical data. Frequency and Measures are shown by default.)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet
  • Drag Discount measure into columns, click on “Show Me” and select Histogram
  • Drag Category into color and label.
  • Drag Discount into the label.
  • Select Discount into marks card and click on drop-down->select Quick table calculation->select Percent of Total

Histogram chart

10. Highlight Table

(Compare categorial data using color)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drop Ship Mode dimension to columns, Region and Sub-Category to rows.
  • Drag Profit dimension to color and Sales to size (Marks).

highlight table chart

11. Gantt Chart

(It is used to identify the time taken for each process)

Steps to Create

  • Open Tableau public and connect to the data source.
  • Go to the new worksheet.
  • Drag Order Date dimension to columns, Region and Sub-category dimension to rows.
  • Click on Analysis ->select Create calculated Field (Time)->Create formula DATEDIFF (‘day’,[Order Date],[Ship Date]) -> Drag Time to Size(Marks).
  • Drag Ship Mode dimension to the color.
  • Drag Order Date, Region, and Sub-Category to Filters and select data you want.

Gantt Chart

12. Heat Map

(It visualizes the data in the form of size as well as color on different measures)

  • Select Sub-Category, press Cntrl and select profit then select Heat map (Show Me)
  • Drag Region into columns, sales into size (Marks).

Heat Map

Conclusion

The graph plays an important role to represent the data. We can modify data the way we want. The more exposure we give to graph, filter, marks, etc the better visualization we can do.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Tableau Chart Types. Here we discuss the best 12 Different Types of Tableau Charts and we have also explained how to create them step by step with the screenshots provided. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. Data Blending in Tableau
  2. Tableau Charts
  3. Line Chart in Tableau
  4. Filters in Tableau
  5. Rank Function in Tableau
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