Tag: Dynamic Axis Range

Can you create this ‘zoom and reset’ scatter plot?

Donna ColesLeave a comment

For this week’s #WOW challenge we’re focusing on parameter driven axes ranges.

Building the basic viz

After connecting to the dataset, add Sales to Columns and Profit to Rows. Add Customer Name to Detail and change the mark type to circle.

The chart is divided by reference lines which I chose to define as parameters (but these were additional to the ones mentioned in the challenge requirements).

pProfitRef

integer parameter defaulted to 0

pSalesRef

integer parameter defaulted to 5000

Add both parameters to the Detail shelf, the add a reference line on the Sales axis that refers to the pSalesRef value.

and then repeat and add a reference line to the Profit axis referencing the pProfitRef field.

To colour the 4 segments of the chart, create new fields

Sales per Customer

{FIXED [Customer Name]:SUM([Sales])}

and

Profit per Customer

{FIXED [Customer Name]: SUM([Profit])}

These capture the total sales / profit at the customer level, and we can then determine which quadrant each customer is in by

Cohort

IF [Sales per Customer]>=[pSalesRef] THEN
IF [Profit Per Customer]>=[pProfitRef] THEN ‘High Sales, High Profit’
ELSE ‘High Sales, Low Profit’
END
ELSE
IF [Profit Per Customer]>=[pProfitRef] THEN ‘Low Sales, High Profit’
ELSE ‘Low Sales, Low Profit’
END
END

Add this to the Colour shelf and adjust colours to suit. Then set the opacity to 50% and increase the size of the marks a bit.

To add matching coloured borders around the marks, add another instance of Profit to Rows. Change the mark type of the 2nd Profit marks card to Shape and change the shape to be an open circle. Set the opacity to 100%. Set the chart to dual axis and synchronise the axis.

Adjust the Tooltip and hide the right hand axis (uncheck show header).

Dynamically adjust the axis

The axes will change by adjusting them to refer to parameters. By default we need the axis to try to replicate what it gets set to automatically. For this we need to capture the maximum and minimum sales and profit values and add a ‘buffer’ to give the extra space. I played around with a few options for the buffer, so created a parameter to store this until I got the value that seemed to work best (again this was an additional parameter that I added to just help not having to change multiple calculated fields as I got the value I wanted.)

pBuffer

integer parameter defaulted to 2000

Then create 4 fields to define the max & min of the two measures +/- buffer

Min Sales + Buffer

{MIN([Sales per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}

Max Sales + Buffer

{MAX([Sales per Customer]) + [pBuffer]}

Min Profit + Buffer

{MIN([Profit Per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}

Max Profit + Buffer

{MAX([Profit Per Customer]) – [pBuffer]}

Then create 4 parameters which will define the values we ca use to set the axis

pX-Min

float parameter that is set to the Min Sales + Buffer field when workbook opens (selecting this will then populate the value)

Create further parameters

pX-Max

float parameter that is set to the Max Sales + Buffer field when workbook opens

pY-Min

float parameter that is set to the Min Profit + Buffer field when workbook opens

pY-Max

float parameter that is set to the Max Profit + Buffer field when workbook opens

Once all the parameters exist, edit the Sales Axis and change the axis to use a custom range that references the pX-Min and pX-Max parameters

Do the same for the Profit axis, but reference the pY-Min and pY-Max parameters instead.

Finally while we’re still on the workbook, create two new fields

True

TRUE

and

False

FALSE

and add these to the Detail shelf. We’ll need these later to stop marks highlighting when we click.

Name the sheet Scatter or similar.

Building the Reset button

This actually requires another sheet (even through the requirements says 1 sheet).

Create a new field

Reset Axis

‘Reset Axis’

Add this to the Text shelf of a new sheet. Change the mark type to shape and select a transparent shape (refer to this blog to understand how to create this).

Set the view to Entire View and align the font middle centre and increase the font size. Set the background of the whole worksheet to black. Adjust the tooltip. Add Min Sales + Buffer, Max Sales + Buffer, Min Profit + Buffer and Max Profit + Buffer to the Detail shelf, along with the True and False fields.

Name the sheet Reset or similar

Adding the interactivity

Add the Scatter and Reset sheets to a dashboard, removing any parameters/legends etc that get added. Create dashboard parameter actions to set the axis parameters when selections are made on the scatter plot:

Set X Max

On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pX-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Sales field.

Set X Min

On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pX-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Sales field.

Set Y Min

On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pY-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Profit field.

Set Y Max

On select of the Scatter sheet, set the pY-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Profit field.

Also create dashboard parameter actions to ‘reset’ the axis parameters when the Reset button is clicked:

Reset X Min

On select of the Reset sheet, set the pX-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Min Sales + Buffer field.

Reset X Max

On select of the Reset sheet, set the pX-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Max Sales + Buffer field.

Reset Y Min

On select of the Reset sheet, set the pY-Min parameter, passing in the minimum value of the Min Profit + Buffer field.

Reset Y Max

On select of the Reset sheet, set the pY-Max parameter, passing in the maximum value of the Max Profit + Buffer field.

All these 8 actions should now combine to drive the ‘zoom & reset’ functionality.

Finally, the last step to make the display ‘nicer’ is to deselect the marks from being highlighted when selected. Add a dashboard filter action

Deselect Scatter

on select of the scatter object on the dashboard, target the scatter sheet directly, passing the selected fields of True = False. Show all values when the selection is cleared.

Repeat an create a similar action for Deselect Reset.

And that should be it. My published viz is here.

Happy vizzin’!

Donna

Can you expand this segmented bar chart?

Donna Coles2 Comments

For this week’s challenge I expanded on my challenge from week 13. So for this solution guide, I’ll be starting with the workbook I built for week 13 and adjusting as required. You can either build on your own solution if you took part, start with my workbook, or rebuild from scratch (my solution guide to week 13 is here).

Based on the hint I provided in the challenge, I’m going to build this with 3 sheets; one sheet to display the bar charts per year for the specific Sub-Category, then one sheet to display the segmented bars up to the selected Sub-Category and one sheet to display the segmented bars below the selected Sub-Category.

For this we need to assign an index to each row of data.

Sub-Cat Index

INDEX()

Make this discrete and add it to Rows in front of Sub-Category and adjust the table calculation so that it computes using Sub-Category only. Each row should be numbered from 1 – 17.

Creating the top & bottom bar chart

We will need to be able to identify the name of the Sub-Category selected and the associated index value. We’ll use parameters to store this information

pSelectedSubCat

string parameter defaulted to ” <empty string>

and

pIndex

integer parameter defaulted to a very large number, in this case I chose 10,000 (basically a number higher than the number of dimensions listed.

Show the parameters, and manually type into pSelectedSubCat the word ‘Copiers’ and into the pIndex type 8 (the index associated with Copiers).

We want to display an arrow indicator based on whether a Sub-Category is selected or not. We need

Arrow Indicator

IF [pSelectedSubCat] = [Sub-Category] THEN ‘▼’ ELSE ‘►’ END

Add this onto the Rows after the Sub-Category pill. Readjust the table calculation of the Sub-Cat Index so it is computing by Arrow Indicator as well.

We only want to show up to the selected Sub-Category

Show Top

[Sub-Cat Index]<=[pIndex]

Add this to the Filter shelf and set to True. Verify the table calculation is also computing by Sub-Category and Arrow Indicator only. Hide the Sub-Cat Index column and format the arrows so they are coloured brown and aligned top centre. Name this sheet Top or similar

Duplicate the sheet.

To show the bottom half of the chart create

Show Bottom

[Sub-Cat Index]>[pIndex]

Remove Show Top from Filter and add Show Bottom instead. Set to True. Again verify the table calculation is computing by Sub-Category and Arrow Indicator only. Call this sheet Bottom or similar.

Building the year bar chart

On a new sheet add Order Date to Rows and Sales to Columns. Change mark type to bar. Adjust Colour and size

Create a new field

Is Selected Sub-Cat

[Sub-Category] = [pSelectedSubCat]

Add to Filter and set to True.

Add another copy of Sales to Columns, then double click into the pill, and manually wrap the text with WINDOW_MAX(….. )

On the Window_Max marsk card, reduce the size to as small as possible and add a white border (via the Colour shelf). Add Sales to the Label shelf and adjust the font to be smaller and coloured brown.

Make the chart dual axis and synchronise the axis. Remove measure Names from the All marks card, and right click on the top axis and move marks to back. Hide both axes, remove row/column dividers and gridlines/zero lines. Adjust the font colour and size of the row labels, and remove the row header.

Add Sales to the Tooltip shelf of the All marks card, and add a quick table calculation of percent of total. Format to 1 dp. Add Sub-Category to the Tooltip shelf too, and then adjust the Tooltip of the All marks card to suit. Name the sheet Years or similar.

Building the dashboard

On the existing dashboard, add a vertical container, and then add the Top, Years and Bottom charts within it.

Remove the chart titles.

You’ll notice that the bar for bookcases in the bottom chart is longer than the bar for copiers in the top chart. We don’t want this. To correct we need

Max Sales Axis

{MAX({FIXED [Sub-Category]:SUM([Sales])})}

Navigate to the Top sheet and add Max Sales Axis to the Detail shelf of the All marks card

Create a new parameter

pMaxAxis

float parameter defaulted to 500,000

On the Bottom sheet, show the Sales axis, then edit the axis and adjust so the axis range is Custom from 0 to pMaxAxis

Hide the Sales axis again

Adding the Interactivity

We will use parameter actions to set the various parameters on click, but we need to ensure the viz will ‘expand’ but also fully ‘collapse’. So we need

Sub-Cat to Pass

IF [Is Selected Sub-Cat] THEN ” ELSE [Sub-Category] END

Index to Pass

IF MIN([Is Selected Sub-Cat]) THEN 10000 ELSE [Sub-Cat Index] END

ie if we’re selecting the Sub-Category that’s already been selected then we need to ‘reset’ back to the start state.

Add both of these fields to the Detail shelf of the All marks card on both the Top and Bottom sheets.

Change Sub-Cat to Pass to be an Attribute so that it doesn’t impact the existing table calc settings, and verify Index to Pass is computing by Sub-Category and Arrow Indicator.

Back to the dashboard, and add the following dashboard action

Select SubCategory

On select of the Top or Bottom sheets, set the pSelectedSubCat parameter, passing in the value from the Sub-Cat To Pass field. When clearing the selection, reset to ” <empty string>

Set Index

On select of the Top or Bottom sheets, set the pIndex parameter, passing in the value from the Index To Pass field aggregated at the minimum level. When clearing the selection, reset to 10,000

Set Axis

On select of the Top sheet, set the pMaxAxis parameter passing in the value from the Max Sales for Axis field. When cleared reset to 50,000

You should now have a functioning chart. You may need to adjust padding of the objects and modify width of headers on the charts to get the alignment as required. Update the chart title as required as well.

My published viz is here.

Happy vizzin’!

Donna

Can you dynamically zoom into a clustered area?

Donna ColesLeave a comment

For this week’s #WOW2024 challenge, Lorna revisited an old #WOW2021 challenge based on Hans Rosling’s chart used in his famous TED talk.

Modelling the data

The first part of the challenge involves modelling the data. Since I’d blogged a solution guide to the original 2021 challenge here, I thought I’d refer myself to my own blog. Re-reading it though, I found I originally had some issues getting all the data sources pivoted in the way I needed, and ended up having to create the csv files as extracted hyper files separately before putting them together. I encountered the same issues again (I was hoping that ‘maybe’ it had been a version problem).

However, I then watched the solution guide that was posted on the old blog page that Lorna had provided, and I found where the problem was.

When I was trying to add connections to the additional data sources into Tableau, I was using the Add option, browsing for the file, and then dragging it into the pane, where I was then unable to pivot it

However, as the csv files I needed are all located in the same directory, the files were already listed on the left hand pane, and dragging from there allowed me to do what I needed, and I’ll talk through that now. Why, adding via the Add button does not work, I don’t know….

The data provided consists of 4 files

  1. Life Expectancy csv
  2. Population csv
  3. Income csv
  4. Geographies (Region Mapping) excel file

The first 3 files are stored as a matrix of Country (rows) by Year (columns) with the appropriate measure in the intersection. This isn’t the ideal format for Tableau so the data needs to pivoted to show 3 columns – Country, Year and the relevant measure (life expectancy, population or income depending on which file is referenced).

In Tableau Desktop, connect to the Life Expectancy file and check the Use Data Interpreter checkbox, so the top row of the file is understood to be the column headings.

Now we need to pivot this data; click on the 1800 column, then scroll across to the end, press shift and click on the final column to select all the year columns. While highlighted, right-click and select Pivot. Your data will be reshaped into 3 columns.

I then renamed each column as

  • Country
  • Year
  • Life Expectancy

Change the datatype of the Year column to be a number (whole), as we’ll need to relate the data on this field later, and working with numeric data is more efficient than strings.

Now from the left hand Files pane, drag in the Population file. By default it will pick up a relationship based on the Country field in each file

Once again, multi-select the columns from 1800 across to 2100, and pivot. Rename the fields to Year – Population and Population and change the datatype of the Year – Population field to a whole number. Add an additional relationship on Year = Year – Population

Next, drag in the Income file from the left hand pane and link to the Life Expectancy file. By default it should pick up a relationship based on the Country field in each file (if not add it). Once again pivot the date fields, and rename the fields Year – Income and Income. Change the data type of the Year – Income field to a whole number, and add an additional relationship on the Year fields.

Finally, using the Add option, add a connection to the Geographies/Region excel file and drag the list-of-countries-etc sheet onto the canvas and link to the Life Expectancy file. Add a relationship from County to Name.

Now the data is modelled, we can build out the viz.

Building the Scatter Plot

We only need to show information for the years up to the ‘current’ year. I created a parameter to represent ‘Today’, essentially hard coding a date.

pToday

date parameter defaulted to 16 Jan 2024

I then created a field

Year <= Current Year

[Year] <= YEAR([pToday])

and added this to the Filter shelf of a new worksheet and set the value to True.

Change the Year field to be discrete (right click > convert to discrete),then add to the Filter shelf, select All Values and then select 2024 from the list. Show the filter on the canvas, and change to a single value (dropdown) that displays only relevant values. Also Customise so the ‘All’ value does not show. Only options from 1800 – 2024 should be listed.

Create a new field to get the regions in the correct format

Region

UPPER(REPLACE([Eight Regions],’_’, ‘ ‘))

Now add Income to Columns and Life Expectancy to Rows and add Country to Detail and Region to Colour and adjust accordingly. Change the mark type to circle. Add Population to Size and adjust. Set the opacity of the colour to around 70%.

If you examine the Income axis on the solution, you’ll see the scale isn’t uniform. This is because it’s using a logarithmic scale instead, which you can set by right-clicking on the Income axis -> Edit Axis and selecting the relevant checkbox. Also, untick the Include zero checkbox, and the display should now start looking more like what’s expected.

Add Year to the Tooltip shelf and update the tooltip. Format the Year field so it’s a number with 0dp that does not include the thousand separators.

Also format the Population field to be a number with 1dp displayed in millions, and format the Life Expectancy field to be a number to 1dp.

Adjust the display of the Life Expectancy axis so that it is displayed without the decimal place. Right click on the axis > format, and on the axis tab on the left hand side, format the numbers to be Number standard

We need to be able to adjust the axis based on selection, so need to set the axis to be able to adjust. For this we will need parameters.

pIncomeMin

integer parameter defaulted to 500

pIncomeMax

integer parameter defaulted to 100,000

pLifeExpectancyMin

integer parameter defaulted to 0

pLifeExpectancyMax

integer parameter defaulted to 100

Right click on the Income axis and edit and set the range to be custom, selecting the pIncomeMin and pIncomeMax parameters

Do the same for the Life Expectancy axis, selecting the relevant parameters.

Hide the null indicator and name the sheet Scatter or similar.

Building the Viz in Tooltip

On a new sheet, add the Year <= Current Year field to Filter and set to True.

Then add Year as a continuous dimension field (green pill) to Columns and Country, Income, Life Expectancy and Population to rows. Add Region to Colour.

Edit each of the Income, Life Expectancy and Population axis in turn and select the Independent axis range for each row or column option.

Hide the Country column (uncheck show header) and remove all gridlines, zero lines, axis lines. Set the display to Entire View and name the sheet VIT or similar.

Back on the Scatter worksheet, edit the Tooltip and add a reference to VIT sheet, adjusting the height and width of the sheet to suit (after a bit of trial and error I used 700 x 450) and setting the filter to Country.

When you hover over a mark, the VIT chart should also be displayed, filtered to the country related to the mark hovered on.

Building the Legend

Create a simple ‘table’ with Region on Columns, Colour and Text. Hide the column heading (uncheck show header) and remove all row & column dividers. Align the text centrally and adjust the font to suit.

Name the sheet Regions or similar.

Adding the interactivity

Arrange the sheets on a dashboard and ensure the Year filter is displayed as a single value drop down that only shows relevant values and doesn’t show the All option.

To filter the chart by the Region, add a filter dasboard action

Filter Region

On select of the Region sheet on the dashboard, target the Scatter sheet on the dashboard, passing the selected fields of Region only. Show all values when the region is unselected.

To allow the chart to zoom in, we need to set the parameters referenced in the axis by using parameter actions.

Income-MinSelected

On selection of marks on the Scatter sheet, update the pIncomeMin parameter using the Minimum value of the Income field. When the selection is cleared, reset the field to 500.

Income-Max Selected

On selection of marks on the Scatter sheet, update the pIncomeMax parameter using the Maximum value of the Income field. When the selection is cleared, reset the field to 100,000.

Create 2 further parameter actions similar to above but referencing the pLifeExpectancyMin and Max parameters and resetting to their defaults of 0 and 100 accordingly.

Once done, the viz should be complete. My published version is here.

Note – I found that after publishing from Desktop to Tableau Public, the ‘zoom’ interactivity was lost, and when I edited my viz on Tableau Public the axis had lost their references to the parameters. I updated and republished the viz from Tableau Public. I don’t know why this happened, and whether it’s a known issue, but thought worth noting in case you encountered the same issue.

Happy vizzin’!

Donna