This is the third part of a three-part series on Tableau Playbook - Area Chart. In the first part, we delved into theoretical knowledge. In the second part, we practice with two advanced area charts. Check it out in case you missed it.
In this guide (Part 3), by analyzing a real-life dataset, Rossmann Store Sales, we will practice another two of the typical area charts with advanced features step by step. Meanwhile, we will draw some conclusions from Tableau visualization.
Let's go ahead and create a continuous, unstacked, opaque area chart to solve the previous drop-line problem.
mmm yyyy
.
Analysis:
Through comparative analysis for these two charts, we can see that although "extra" assortment contributes very little to the total sales (according to the second chart), the actual sales of each extra store are the highest (according to the first chart). This is because the store number of "extra" is the smallest.
In order to use space more efficiently and make a better relative comparison, we can build a 100% stacked bar chart:
Analysis:
Based on the original version, we find out that there are fewer records from August to December. But we don't care about the absolute number; we only care about the proportion of school holidays over month. So, a discrete, 100% stacked area chart is the best choice. It makes the full usage of space, and both holiday and non-holiday have a baseline. From this chart, we can see the proportion of school holidays in July and August was the highest and the lowest was in November.
In this guide, we have learned about area charts from practice. We drew another two typical area charts to demonstrate a variety of features, such as discrete vs. continuous, stacked vs. unstacked vs. 100% stacked, and opaque style.
You can download this example workbook Line Chart and Variations from Tableau Public.
In conclusion, I have drawn a mind map to help you organize and review the knowledge in this guide.
I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, you're welcome to contact me at [email protected].
If you want to dive deeper into this topic or learn more comprehensively, there are many professional Tableau Training Classes on Pluralsight, such as Tableau Desktop Playbook: Building Common Chart Types.
I made a complete list of my common Tableau charts serial guides, in case you are interested:
Categories | Guides and Links |
---|---|
Bar Chart | Bar Chart, Stacked Bar Chart, Side-by-side Bar Chart, Histogram, Diverging Bar Chart |
Text Table | Text Table, Highlight Table, Heat Map, Dot Plot |
Line Chart | Line Chart, Dual Axis Line Chart, Area Chart, Sparklines, Step Lines and Jump Lines |
Standard Chart | Pie Chart |
Derived Chart | Funnel Chart, Waffle Chart |
Composite Chart | Lollipop Chart, Dumbbell Chart, Pareto Chart, Donut Chart |